Police in Istanbul conducted a series raids in the city targeting
Islamic State suspects, the state-run news agency reported Thursday,
following the gunfire and suicide bomb attack at Ataturk Airport which
killed 42 people.
Anadolu Agency said police searched several addresses
in Istanbul’s Pendik, Basaksehir and Sultanbeyli neighborhoods but it
was not clear if any arrests were made. There was no word on whether the
raids were directly linked to the attack.
Authorities blamed the IS group for the coordinated
attack by three assailants late Tuesday on one of the world’s busiest
airports, that also injured more than 230.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility by the militant group.
Seperately, security forces killed two suspected
Islamic State militants at the border with Syria, Anadolu and other news
reports said Thursday.
Anadolu, citing unnamed security sources, says the
two Syrian nationals were killed on June 25 while trying to cross the
border illegally and ignored security forces warnings to stop.
One of the two militants was wanted by Turkey on
suspicion that he would carry out suicide attacks in the capital Ankara
or in the southern city of Adana, Anadolu said.
Turkey shares long, porous borders with both Syria
and Iraq, where IS controls large pockets of territory, and the
government has blamed IS for several major bombings over the past year,
including in the capital Ankara, and on tourists in Istanbul.