Two ISIL attackers’ identities confirmed

Police said that before the attack was carried out the assailants threw away their laptop, which contained key organizational information, after damaging its hard disk. 

According to reports, Osman was the attacker who rented the cell house in Fatih while police found a copy of his passport through the apartment’s realtor. 

Meanwhile, a total of 11 suspected foreign militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were detained in Istanbul early on July 1 in connection with the deadly suicide attack on the city’s main airport, daily Habertürk has reported.

Istanbul counterterrorism police carried out an operation against an ISIL cell in the Başakşehir district on suspicion that they are linked to the three suicide bombers who staged the deadly attack at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport on June 28.

Eleven suspects, including some of Russian nationality who were staying in the city, were apprehended in the operation, as the total number of suspects detained over the attack increased to 24. 

Another 13 people, four of whom are foreigners, were detained in Istanbul on June 30 in a dawn operation on 16 different addresses in several districts, including Pendik, Başakşehir and Sultanbeyli.

At least 44 people were killed and hundreds were wounded in the suicide bomb attack at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport blamed on the jihadist group.


More than 100 arrests

More than 100 suspected ISIL militants were arrested in Turkey last month, according to figures compiled from law enforcement agency records.      

Of the 106 arrests, 32 were detained in custody pending trial. The remaining suspects were deported, released on bail pending further investigation, or released with no extra action to be taken.      

Among those sent out from Turkey were 19 Tajikistan nationals arrested in Istanbul on June 3.      

The arrests occurred across Turkey -- in the southern provinces of Gaziantep, Kilis, Mersin, Kahramanmaraş and Antalya; Izmir and Manisa in the west; Yozgat and Ankara in central Anatolia; and Bursa and Istanbul in the northwest.      

Police, gendarmerie and military records examined by state-run Anadolu Agency include details of weapons, cash, computers and documents seized during the arrests.      

According to Interior Minister Efkan Ala, 1,654 suspected ISIL members have been arrested so far this year, of whom 791 were non-Turks. Of those arrested, 663 were remanded in custody.      

In addition, the military has targeted ISIL positions in northern Syria, killing at least 230 terrorists.