Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Turkey Jails 17 Defendants Over Istanbul Attack; Blames Airport Attacks on Ex-Soviet IS Radicals

Turkey jailed 17 suspects today -- including 11 foreigners -- over last week's suicide bombing at Istanbul's main airport, which President Tayyip Erdogan described as the work of Islamic State (IS) militants from the ex-Soviet Union, according to the Reuters website.

Today's arrests bring the total number of people jailed pending trial to 30 over the triple suicide bombing at Ataturk Airport, which killed 45 people and wounded hundreds -- the deadliest is a series of terrorist bombings this year in Turkey.

"The incident is of course completely within the framework of Daesh, a process conducted with their methods," Erdogan told reporters after praying at an Istanbul mosque at the start of the holiday. Daesh is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

"There are people from Dagestan, from Kyrgyzstan, from Yajikistan," Erdogan said, referring to a mainly Muslim province of Russia's North Caucasus region, and two former Soviet states in central Asia. "Unfortunately, people from neighboring northern Caucasus countries are involved in this business."

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