Turkey identifies airport bomber, but security remains questioned

One of the Istanbul airport attackers has been identified by Turkish police as Osman Vadinov, who reportedly entered Turkey on his Russian passport about a month ago.

The police said he had entered Turkey from Raqqa, the Daesh stronghold in Syria, at least once before in 2015 and is suspected to have had links to jihadi cells inside Turkey.

Despite no claim of responsibility, Turkish authorities, including the president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, believe Daesh was responsible for the attack on Europe’s third-busiest airport on Tuesday evening, the deadliest in a string of killings and explosions in Turkey.

After the airport explosion, Turkish police carried out raids against suspected Daesh cells in Istanbul and Izmir, arresting 16 people, including a further three foreign nationals, reports say.

The man suspected of being the organiser of the attack was a Daesh commander of Chechen origin called Akhmed Chatayev, according to the pro-government newspaper, Yeni Safak.

Neverthelss, the assault on Atatürk airport has also raised serious questions about security shortcomings in Turkey and the activity of Daesh cells.

Private security personnel guarding doors of the international departure terminal at the time of the attack said the assailants caught officers off guard, according to reports by the BBC.

“The attackers had chosen the hour just after iftar [the evening meal with which Muslims break their fast during Ramadan], so they were all caught unawares,” one security guard said.

“Many of the policemen were hiding when the shooter made his way across the departure hall towards the VIP lounge.”

Regardless, the Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim said there had been no security flaws at the airport on Tuesday.

Some critics have reportedly said the coordination between the various police departments and the National Intelligence Agency (MIT) was still insufficient, pointing to the fact that MIT had warned about a possible suicide bomb attack only weeks before the assault.

“No country is entirely safe from such terrorist attacks,” said Nihat Ali Özcan, a counterterrorism expert. “Turkey is most certainly at a geographical disadvantage and Daesh has managed to establish a network here and rally recruits to its cause. We are facing a massive security challenge.”