Turkish Official: Attackers Were From Russia, Central Asia

Special police members patrol as family members, colleagues and friends of the victims of Tuesday blasts gather for a memorial ceremony at the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Thursday, June 30, 2016. A senior Turkish official on Thursday identified the Istanbul airport attackers as a Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz national hours after police carried out sweeping raids across the city looking for Islamic State suspects. Tuesday's gunfire and suicide bombing attack at Ataturk Airport killed dozens and injured over 200. Turkish authorities have banned distribution of images relating to the Ataturk airport attack within Turkey.AP Photo/Emrah Gurel

ISTANBUL—As the death toll from the Istanbul airport attack rose Thursday to 44, a senior Turkish official said the three suicide bombers who carried it out were from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and police raided neighborhoods for suspects linked to the Islamic State group.

Turkish authorities have said all information suggested the Tuesday night attack on Ataturk Airport, one of the world’s busiest, was the work of IS, which boasted this week of having cells in Turkey, among other countries.

The police raided 16 locations in three neighborhoods on both the Asian and European sides of Istanbul, rounding up 13 people suspected of having links to the Islamic State group.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility by the militant group, which has used Turkey as a crossing point to establish itself in neighboring Syria and Iraq. IS has repeatedly threatened Turkey in its propaganda publications, and the NATO member has blamed IS for several major bombings in the past year in both Ankara and Istanbul.

Relatives mourn as they gather around the Turkish flag-draped coffin of Habibullah Sefer, one of the victims killed Tuesday at the blasts in Istanbul's Ataturk airport, during the funeral in Istanbul, June 30, 2016.  AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis