Istanbul attack plotter may have been killed in Georgia

By Davit Kachkachishvili

TBILISI, Georgia

A Daesh terrorist who was reportedly behind the deadly June 2016 Istanbul airport attack may have been killed in a daylong anti-terror operation in Georgia, according to Georgian security.

Vakhtang Gomelauri, the head of Georgia’s State Security Service (SSS), said Ahmet Catayev, a Chechen member of Daesh, could be one of the three terrorists who were killed during an operation on Nov. 22 in the capital Tbilisi.

Gomelauri on Sunday attended the funeral of a special forces officer who was killed by terrorists during the 22-hour operation.

He said whether Catayev, who is designated a terrorist by the U.S., was among the slain would be clear after identification done in cooperation with the U.S.

On June 28, 2016, 45 people were killed and more than 200 others injured at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport when three suicide bombers, all foreign nationals, opened fire and blew themselves up at the international terminal.