RIYADH/ANKARA: Only two Saudis were among the 42 killed in Tuesday's suicide bombings in Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, the Saudi Embassy in Turkey said late on Wednesday, correcting earlier figures.
Saudi Ambassador to Turkey Adel Murdad said in a statement that four others who were initially identified as Saudis turned out to be of different nationalies.
Murdad said the number of injured Saudi citizens was also lowered to 25 and that four Saudis earlier reported to be missing were located by Turkish authorities.
A Turkish presidential official said 23 of those killed in the attacks were Turkish citizens and 13 were foreign nationals.
A Turkish official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol said the death toll does not include three suicide bombers who died.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far, but officials are blaming the Daesh terrorist group.
The other fatalities identified so far were two Iraqis, one Tunisian, an Uzbek, a Chinese, an Iranian, a Ukrainian and a Jordanian national.
Also among the casualties were Palestinians living and working in Saudi Arabia and who had landed in Istanbul for vacation.
The Palestinian ambassador to Turkey said a Palestinian woman was killed in the blasts and six other Palestinians were injured, including a 17-year-old girl from the Gaza Strip who suffered critical injuries.
Ambassador Faed Mustafa confirmed the death and injuries to Palestinian media on Wednesday.
Nisreen Melhem, 28, from the West Bank town of Arraba, was killed and her 34-year-old husband and 3-year-old daughter were injured, according to Moath Hamed, a Palestinian journalism student visiting the family in the hospital.
A statement on the governor’s website sayid 37 of the victims have been identified, including 10 foreign nationals and three people with dual citizenship. More than 230 people were wounded in the attack, but 109 have been discharged from hospitals.
Tuesday’s attack also comes a week before the Eid holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
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