Istanbul Attack Counters Narrative ISIS is 'Losing' by Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor
The attack on Istanbul’s main airport by three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers not only targeted the commercial heart of Turkey’s economy, but showed that the jihadist group can still strike with devastating effect despite losing ground and fighters in Syria and Iraq. Suicide attackers killed 41 and wounded 239 at the international terminal of Ataturk airport, the third-busiest in Europe.
The attack runs counter to the narrative that IS is “losing” in Iraq and Syria, and is therefore less of a danger, say analysts. As the nation that at first facilitated the flow of Islamist militants into Syria for several years but is now cracking down on IS, Turkey has become a critical target.
“This is a qualitatively different attack than previous ones. It is spectacular, it is massive, it is ambitious,” says Fawaz Gerges, author of “ISIS: A History.”
“The political message to the Turkish government is, ‘You want it to be all-out war? Here you have it.’ The idea is to paralyze the Turkish economy further, more than ISIS has done so far,” says Mr. Gerges, a Middle East expert at the London School of Economics.
The attack is the latest in a string of suicide attacks in Turkey, which have left Turks on edge since last year and resulted in a 35 percent drop in tourism…