28 Jun - ISTANBUL - Turkey airport attackers kill 41

[TonyGosling]

Istanbul Ataturk airport attack: 41 dead and more than 230 hurt
22 minutes ago
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36658187

Turkey said early signs suggested so-called Islamic State was behind the attack
A gun and bomb attack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport has killed 41 people, at least 13 of them foreigners, and injured more than 230, officials say.
Three attackers arrived in a taxi and began firing at the terminal entrance late on Tuesday. They blew themselves up after police fired back.
PM Binali Yildirim said early signs pointed to so-called Islamic State but no-one has so far admitted the attack.
Recent bombings have been linked to either IS or Kurdish separatists.

Tuesday's attack looked like a major co-ordinated assault, says the BBC's Mark Lowen.
Ataturk airport has long been seen as a vulnerable target, our Turkey correspondent adds, reporting from a plane stuck on the tarmac in Istanbul.
There are X-ray scanners at the entrance to the terminal but security checks for cars are limited.
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Media captionBBC reporter Mark Lowen reports from on board a plane stuck on the tarmac
Pictures from the airport terminal showed bodies covered in sheets, with glass and abandoned luggage littering the building.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attack should serve as a turning point in the global fight against militant groups.
"The bombs that exploded in Istanbul today could have gone off at any airport in any city around the world," he said.
The US called the attack "heinous", saying America remained "steadfast in our support for Turkey".
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere called the attacks "cowardly and brutal".
'Dressed in black'
Istanbul's governor confirmed 41 people had died and 239 were injured in the attack. At least 13 of those killed were of foreign or dual nationality. Some 109 of those hurt have now been discharged from hospital.
One Iranian and one Ukrainian were confirmed dead.
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Media captionFootage shows passengers taking cover inside the airport
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Media captionWill Carter, eyewitness: "We saw a flash of fire"
Reports of the attack vary but it appears the attackers opened fire at the entrance where the X-ray machines are positioned, sparking an exchange with police. At least two ran into the building.
Footage on social media shows one moving through the building as people around him flee. He is shot by police and remains on the ground for about 20 seconds before blowing himself up. All three attackers were killed.
Analysis: BBC security correspondent, Frank Gardner
The lack of any immediate claim for this attack by so-called Islamic State is not surprising. IS rarely, if ever, claims responsibility for attacks against the Turkish state yet it is quick to advertise its assassinations of Syrian activists inside Turkey.
All the signs point towards IS being the culprits. This is what British counter-terrorism officials term "a marauding terrorist firearms attack", following a pattern first seen in the Mumbai attacks of 2008.
The Istanbul targets were international air travellers and ground staff at an iconic location, the third busiest airport in Europe.
IS is targeting Turkey because it sees its government as being un-Islamic and too close to its Western allies in Nato. IS is also feeling the pressure as the Turkish authorities move to close down its networks inside Turkey.
Turkey's other main foe, Kurdish separatists, have carried out many attacks over the years but their primary targets have tended to be Turkish policemen and soldiers.
Paul Roos, who was due to fly home to South Africa, told Reuters he saw one of the attackers.
"He was wearing all black. His face was not masked. We ducked behind a counter but I stood up and watched him. Two explosions went off shortly after one another. By that time he had stopped shooting.
"He turned around and started coming towards us. He was holding his gun inside his jacket. He looked around anxiously to see if anyone was going to stop him and then went down the escalator. We heard some more gunfire and then another explosion, and then it was over."
#Pray for Turkey
Taxis were used to rush casualties to hospital after the attack. Desperate relatives of those missing later gathered outside a local hospital where many victims were taken.
People walk away from Istanbul Ataturk airportImage copyrightREUTERS
Image caption
Terrified passengers were seen leaving the airport on foot

Armed police sealed off the area
A Kalashnikov assault rifle is seen on the floor at Ataturk airport

A Kalashnikov assault rifle was later found at the scene of the attack
Ambulances arrive at Turkey's largest airport, Istanbul Ataturk, Turkey, following a blast June 28, 2016

Ambulances flocked to the airport after explosions were heard
Medics take an injured man to hospital in Istanbul

A number of injured people were taken to local hospitals
Flights in and out of the airport were suspended after the attack. They have now resumed, but information boards showed about one-third had been cancelled, with many delays.
Charles Michel, the prime minister of Belgium whose capital city was targeted by bombers in March, tweeted from the EU summit in Brussels: "Our thoughts are with the victims of the attacks at Istanbul's airport. We condemn these atrocious acts of violence."

Europe's third-busiest in passenger traffic after London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle, serving 61.3 million passengers in 2015. World's 11th busiest
Opened in 1924 in the Yesilkoy area, renamed in the 1980s after the nation's first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Two passenger terminals: one domestic, one international
To be closed after the massive Istanbul New Airport - planned to be the largest in the world - opens in the Arnavutkoy district. Its first phase is due to be operational in 2017
Major recent attacks
2016
7 June, Istanbul: Car bomb kills seven police officers and four civilians. Claimed by Kurdish militant group TAK
19 March, Istanbul: Suicide bomb kills four people in shopping street. IS blamed
13 March, Ankara: Car bomb kills 35. Claimed by TAK
17 February, Ankara: 29 killed in attack on military buses. Claimed by TAK
12 January, Istanbul: 12 Germans killed by Syrian bomber in tourist area
2015
23 December, Istanbul: Bomb kills cleaner at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport. Claimed by TAK
10 October, Ankara: More than 100 killed at peace rally outside railway station. Blamed on IS
20 July, Suruc, near Syrian border: 34 people killed in bombing in Kurdish town. IS blamed

[TonyGosling]

The media is not telling you the truth about Turkey’s most recent terror attack
JUNE 29TH, 2016 Ed Sykes ED SYKES INTERNATIONAL
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/06/29/heres-media-wont-tell-turkeys-recen t-terrorist-attack/

The media is not telling you the truth about Turkey’s most recent terror attack
On 28 June, three suicide bombers with suspected links to Daesh (Isis/Isil) targeted the international terminal at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey. At least 36 people were killed in this attack, and over a hundred more were wounded. What the mainstream media won’t explain in the aftermath, however, is the context behind this act of terrorism.

The first major Daesh attack on Turkish soil came on 20 July 2015, when the group massacred 34 left-wing activists transporting aid to the devastated Kurdish town of Kobani in northern Syria. In October, the terrorist organisation struck the country’s capital city of Ankara, killing 102 peace activists and injuring around 500 more. Attacks in January and March 2016 in the city of Istanbul claimed 15 more lives.

Now, Turkish security forces believe that Daesh was responsible for the brutal attack on Atatürk Airport which saw dozens more civilians added to the long list of terror victims.

But since July 2015, Turkey has not waged war on Daesh.

Instead, it has waged war on its own Kurdish communities, whose opposition to the policies of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan led the chauvinist strongman to destroy promising peace negotiations with left-wing Kurdish rebels in order to stay in power. From July onwards, Erdoğan sought to consolidate this power by courting the votes of Turkish fascists and pro-jihadi fundamentalists.

Erdoğan and his regime have since manipulated and suppressed the media to hide the reality of military curfews in Kurdish communities – which are thought to have killed many hundreds of civilians between August 2015 and March 2016. (The Canary has covered the war crimes and destruction in just two of these areas – Cizre and Nusaybin.)

In spite of the death and destruction caused in Turkey by Daesh-inspired terrorists, Ankara has only engaged in a few token attacks on Daesh, waging instead a full-blown war on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – one of the most effective anti-Daesh fighting forces on the ground in both Iraq and Syria.

In today’s Turkey, meanwhile, quasi-religious extremists have all too often been let off the hook. The current regime has been accused on numerous occasions of serving as a “mediator and ally” for Daesh and other jihadis in Syria, either directly or indirectly.

At home, authorities turn a blind eye to these fundamentalists. Just recently, when hundreds of thugs attacked citizens listening to Radiohead and drinking beer in Istanbul, authorities responded by firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the victims rather than the attackers.

Educated people in general have been a target of government repression over the last year. There have been many cases of them being denied permission to leave the country, and regime cheerleaders have openly expressed their hatred for the country’s most highly-educated citizens.

Western governments have ignored the deteriorating human rights situation in Turkey and its complicity with jihadi forces in Syria for far too long. As Ankara commands NATO’s second-largest army, the west believes it cannot afford to rub the Turkish regime up the wrong way. But the more Turkey’s allies look away from this reality, the worse the situation gets.

Citizens in the country live in constant fear of violence today. And the government’s soft response to jihadis and iron-fisted response to democratic demands is the main culprit. The west must seriously address this problem as soon as possible. The fight to defeat Daesh and bring peace to the Middle East depends on it.

Get involved!

– Read more Canary articles on Turkey here.

– Ask the Prime Minister and your MP to urge the Turkish regime to resume peace talks with its Kurdish communities and focus its efforts on defeating Daesh and other jihadi forces within its borders.

– Join at least 400,000 Brits who have already cancelled holidays in Turkey, and support the boycott campaign here.