At least 41 people died in Tuesday's attack on Ataturk international airport in Istanbul and at least 239 people were injured. At least 13 foreigners or dual citizens are among the dead, the Turkish government says.
The attack was carried out by three suicide bombers armed with guns and explosives, according to authorities.
No group has claimed responsibility for the violence, but Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says he suspects the Islamic State was behind it.
Our top story on Midday Edition, Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul is open today. A rather amazing fact given that yesterday was the scene of a terror attack that killed at least 41 people. Isis has not claimed responsibility for the attack. Many terror suspects -- experts suspect it was carried out by members of that group. Turkey shares a border with Syria and Isis members and had to travel frequently between the two countries. I spoke with Professor -- a professor from San Diego and director for the center of Islamic and Arabic studies. Thinking welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Does it surprise you that this attack happened in a largely Muslim country during Ramadan? It should have been. It was a time of peace for engagement. I was not surprised when I heard a. I was sad. I was not surprised because we have had so many tragedy event including Orlando and is double. For the last three years, Turkey has experienced so many negative processes, including terrorist attacks and the government backlash. What his interview was the target of this attack? There are structural factors around the region. It started with euphoria and democracy. Two civil wars are at the border of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. It is important for Turkey. Structural conditions is one thing. There are also agency based problems which is mismanagement. Right now the president is trying to create a de facto presidential system by undermining the parliament and Prime Minister without a constitutional amendment. In addition to that, he is building a regime in which the mid-media and jurisdiction is under his control. Have you spoken with friends or family in Turkey? I have kept using several social media opportunities. My relatives encouraged me not to visit because there is so many problems that any critical war -- it could be arrested in Turkey. You know what their reaction was to the attack yesterday? They were shocked. My mother was here in San Diego for two months. She flew back to Turkey and then she was in the airport. It was just one hour or two hours before the bombing. We were all very much worried and crazy. We knew that she left the airport before the bombing. I am very sad about the victims of the incident. It is good that my mother was not one of them. There has been some comment that this attack and other terror attacks in Turkey have not received the kind of international attention that the attacks in Paris or the attack at the Brussels airport have. Sugar with that? I would say yes and now. Yes, the Western countries show a stronger cooperation with something happened in Western Europe. There are some double standards about supporting the human rights. For the last two or three years in Turkey, the regime has been violating several human rights principles. We have not heard enough criticism for Western governments. The Western media took the responsibility and showed support to human rights activist in Turkey, but not the Western government. That is why I say yes. No and a sense that Turkey, the government, should have done a better job in terms of containing terrorism, especially to hottest terrorism before questioning others given not enough support. What would you suggest that the rest of the world do in this situation? The best thing to do is to encourage Turkey to have open media politics. Right now the 80% or maybe more of Turkish TV channels are under personnel control. It is really hard to reach a reliable data. There is too much propaganda. About a year ago there was a bombing and 100 activists were killed. The government defined it as a cocktail bombing in which Isis and the curtain northern Syria get together. No one believed it in the world but that level of propaganda is happening in Turkey down by the government. Up and speaking of political science professor, director of San Diego State Center for Islamic and Arabic studies. Thank you so much.
Ataturk is Europe's third-busiest airport and a major international transit hub. The airport has reopened for business, and debris was rapidly being tidied up. NPR's Leila Fadel, whose plane arrived at Ataturk on Wednesday morning, described "workers cleaning up damage, passengers whizzing by shattered windows."
"It's a bit of a strange sensation, to watch people rolling their bags around, shopping at the duty-free, and also seeing the remnants of damage and a very recent wound here," she said on Morning Edition. "Definitely a sign that the Turkish government wants to pick up and keep going and tell people to continue to come here."
Dalia Mortada, reporting from Istanbul for NPR, says Turkish officials say the attackers arrived by taxi:
"The justice minister said the assailants got to the airport in a yellow cab and opened fire at the entrance security checkpoint before detonating their bombs," she reports. "The attackers targeted international arrivals gates."
There are conflicting reports about how exactly the attack played out, Leila reports, but Turkey's prime minister says the three suicide bombers opened fire before setting off bombs.
There were reportedly two bombs inside the arrivals hall, and one in the parking lot of the airport, Leila says.
Judy Favish, who is from South Africa and had a two-day layover in Istanbul, was at the airport when the attacks began. She spoke to Morning Edition about what she saw — or rather, in the first moments, what she heard.
After the sounds of gunfire and a "very big bang," Favish says, "all I could think of was to run and hide."
"Walking out of the building, it was just horrible, because there was blood everywhere," she says. "But I am very lucky. I only lost a suitcase."
NPR's Dina Temple-Raston, citing two officials briefed on the attack, says that investigators are currently looking for the taxi driver who dropped the gunmen off at the airport.
The problem, Dina says, is that investigators don't yet have a description or picture of the attackers. The men weren't wearing masks, though, and authorities are using CCTV footage to try to identify them.
NPR's Peter Kenyon, who is based in Istanbul but is currently in London, says the Ataturk international airport has strict security protocols — measures that are significantly more stringent than those at the Brussels airport that was attacked in March.
"Ataturk airport [has] two layers of security — unlike Brussels, they have a screening and check passengers at the terminal entrance before you get in, and then after you check in there's another one before you get to the gates. So anybody transiting through Ataturk airport would be behind two security barriers and pretty far away from where this attack took place — but that's no consolation if you're one of these dozens of families with victims now."And the question is, where do you put the barrier? Because that becomes the target. At Tel Aviv, for instance, you get checked well before their terminal; in Baghdad, the checkpoints start miles before you get there."And it's a big problem: How do you make travelers more secure without making air travel even more frustrating than it already is? The answer seems to be more intelligence, stop the attacks — and that, of course, as we've seen, is also extremely hard."
As The Two-Way noted last night, there are a number of videos of Tuesday's attack available online:
"In an unusual occurrence, footage of the attack is being shared on Twitter, in several videos that rely on smartphone video taken of the airport's security camera monitors.
"One such video, seemingly taken from the camera above the check-in desk, shows people running from the area of the explosion. While the video doesn't include graphic images of personal injury, we'll warn you that it does depict a traumatic event at around the 17-second mark, as the blast generates a powerful fireball."
"Another video posted to Twitter suggests security personnel shot an armed attacker as he ran around a corner in the airport. That video shows people fleeing from a man who then falls to the ground. The man struggles on the ground for some 20 seconds before the scene is overtaken by a large explosion."
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest says President Obama has called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to "express his deep condolences" and offer U.S. support for the investigation.
Turkey has been struck by a series of deadly attacks this year — including attacks in Istanbul in January and February, attacks in both Istanbul and Ankara in March, and an attack targeting police in Istanbul earlier this month.
Some of those attacks have been claimed by Kurdish militants; others have been attributed to the Islamic State.
It's very unusual for Istanbul to see four deadly attacks in six months, Mortada reports.
"This is not something that happens very often in Istanbul," she said on All Things Considered. "This year has been very, very violent for this city."
This is a breaking news story. As often happens in situations like these, some information reported early may turn out to be inaccurate. We'll move quickly to correct the record and we'll only point to the best information we have at the time.
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