Investigators trying to identify culprits behind Istanbul airport attack

Passengers leave Turkey's Ataturk Airport after deadly blasts Tuesday.
(Image credit: Gokhan Tan/Getty Images)

No group has taken responsibility yet for the deadly blasts Tuesday at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport that killed at least 36 people.

U.S. officials told The Daily Beast they have no intelligence identifying the culprits, and the main suspects are the Islamic State and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a militant group seeking independence for Kurds in Turkey. The PKK does not usually target citizens in its attacks, and the officials said they privately believe ISIS is likely behind the coordinated attacks; while they are suspected in several bombings across Turkey, they have never claimed responsibility for a bombing inside the country.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.