Suspected Istanbul airport bomber thought killed in Georgia
None
A former Islamic State warlord suspected of masterminding a deadly attack on Istanbul airport in 2016 is believed to have been killed during a special operation in ex-Soviet Georgia last week.
Akhmed Chatayev, an ethnic Chechen, is highly likely to have lost his life during a police operation against a group of armed men on the outskirts of the Georgian capital Tbilisi last week.
One Georgian special forces serviceman and three members of the armed group, which was suspected of terrorism, were killed in the operation. Four police officers were wounded and one member of the group was arrested during the 20-hour operation at the apartment block where the group was hiding.
"We suspect that one of the gunmen killed in the special operation in Tbilisi could be Akhmed Chatayev," Nino Giorgobiani, deputy chief of the state security service said.
Chatayev was named by Turkish media and a U.S. congressman as the mastermind of the suicide bombing of Istanbul airport in 2016 which killed 45 people. His involvement in the airport bombing has not been confirmed by Turkish officials.
