7 more arrested in relation to Istanbul airport attack

By Melike Gallenkus

ISTANBUL (AA) - Seven people were arrested in Istanbul late Sunday in relation to a deadly suicide bomb attack that killed dozens last month.

The arrests followed risk analysis and profile assessment reports by Istanbul anti-terror police and were ordered by the city’s Bakirkoy Criminal Court of Peace, judicial sources said.

The suspects, pending trial, face charges of "being a member of armed terrorist group" and "assisting pre-mediated homicide", the sources added.

Forty-five people were killed and more than 200 injured at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport on June 28th when three suicide bombers, all foreign nationals, opened fire and blew themselves up at the international terminal.

A prosecution sources named two of the bombers as Rakim Bulgarov and Vadim Osmanov, without giving information on either man’s nationality.

Sunday’s arrests bring the total number of suspects under arrest to 37.

*Anadolu Agency correspondent Satuk Bugra Kutlugun contributed to this report from Ankara