Terrorist killed in Tbilisi special operation was behind Istanbul airport explosion

Georgia’s State Security Service (SSS) has confirmed that one of the three killed suspects in the Tbilisi counter-terrorist operation on November 22 is an ISIS-linked terrorist Ahmed Chataev, who was behind the deadly terrorist attack on the Istanbul Ataturk Airport.

The head of the SSS press office Nino Giorgobiani said that two suspects were killed by Georgian law enforcers, while "Chataev exploded himself.”

Giorgobiani said the Georgian security staff had been negotiating with the suspects to make them surrender several hours before the launch of the attack.

"Together with the negotiations, law enforcers evacuated people as the suspects were sheltered in one of the flats of a residential building,” Giorgobiani said.

She said the measures were made for avoiding victims, Agenda.ge reported.

Giorgobiani added that the two killed suspects had no ID documents, and Georgia with the help of the US was trying to specify who they are.

The Security Service reiterated that one Georgian special unit servicemen Ivane Goloshvili was killed by the suspects and four other law enforcers were wounded.

The deadly terrorist attack on the Ataturk Airport in Turkey in 2016 killed 48 people and injured more than 230.