ISTANBUL (Dispatches) -- Three suicide attackers killed at least 41 people and wounded dozens more at Istanbul’s main airport on Tuesday night, in the latest in a string of terrorist attacks in Turkey, a NATO ally once seen as a bastion of stability but now increasingly consumed by the chaos of the Middle East.
Hours after the assault, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim of Turkey said that early indications pointed to an operation carried out by Daesh, but as of early Wednesday, the group had not claimed responsibility for the attack.
The attack began shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday, Turkish officials said, when two gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons at a security checkpoint outside Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, one of Europe’s busiest. They then detonated their explosives, setting off two fireballs. A third attacker set off explosives in the parking lot.
Turkey has faced a string of terrorist attacks over the past year, including several in Istanbul, as it confronts threats from both Daesh and Kurdish militants fighting a war with the Turkish state in the southeast.
The Istanbul governor’s office said on Wednesday morning that 41 people had died and 239 others got injured.
Most of the dead were Turks, although some were foreigners, Yildirim said. The three attackers were killed when they detonated their explosives, he said.
One Iranian national lost his life in the terrorist attack, a Foreign Ministry official in Tehran said. Deputy Foreign Minister Hassan Qashqavi said five other Iranians sustained injuries.
Iran suspended all flights to Istanbul's main international airport on Wednesday.
"Due to last night's explosions at Ataturk Airport ... all Iranian flights are suspended until their safety and security are guaranteed,” Reza Jafarzadeh, the director of the public relations at Iran's Civil Aviation Organization, said.
Outside the terminal on Tuesday night, as calls went out on local news channels for blood donors and the Turkish authorities imposed a ban on publishing images of the scene of the attack, ambulances streamed in, while hundreds of dazed and scared travelers sat on the sidewalk waiting for information. And more travelers, many in tears, were streaming out of the airport.
"There were blood splatters everywhere,” said Eylul Kaya, 37, sitting outside with her 1-year-old son. "I covered my boy’s eyes and we ran out.”
As Turkey has faced several deadly terrorist attacks over the past year, Kaya said she never thought she would find herself in the middle of one. "We’ve watched these attacks on TV for months, but I never imagined it would happen with so much security in an airport,” she said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan noted that the bombing came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and he called for global unity in the fight against terrorism.
Turkey’s Western allies, including the United States, blamed the country’s open-border policy for allowing extremist groups like Daesh to become powerful inside Syria, and the chaos has increasingly spilled over into Turkey, with terrorist attacks and waves of refugees.
Turkey, a NATO member, has often been at odds with Syria’s supporters its approach to the region. Many countries believe that Turkey’s early policy on Syria enabled the growth of Daesh, and they have long felt that Turkey was a reluctant partner in fighting the terrorist group. Turkey, in turn, has grown angry over American support for Syrian Kurdish rebels that it sees as terrorists because of links to Kurdish militants inside Turkey.
Tuesday’s assault continues a string of deadly attacks.
Some of the recent terrorist attacks in Turkey — including a car bombing in Ankara, the capital, in February — have been attributed to Kurdish militants, which has heightened tensions between Ankara and Washington over the support the United States has given to Syrian Kurdish militants.
The attack on Tuesday evoked the bombing of the Brussels airport several months ago and highlighted the conundrum security officials face in minimizing casualties from terrorist attacks. In Brussels, the attackers managed to get inside the terminal and detonate their explosives. But at the Istanbul airport, the first security check is in a vestibule at the entrance to the terminal, which theoretically adds a layer of security. But even so, people have to line up there and, as the attack demonstrated, it is an easy target for terrorists.
Flights out of Istanbul were immediately canceled Tuesday night, and ones on their way were diverted. The airport, the third busiest in Europe and the 11th busiest in the world, was closed after the attack, but Yildirim, the prime minister, said early Wednesday that it had reopened.  
Although no group claimed responsibility for the attack, initial speculation centered on Turkey’s two main enemies: Daesh and Kurdish militants linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged war with Turkey for more than three decades. Last year, peace talks with the PKK broke down, and the two sides have been at war since. But hours after the attack, Turkish officials turned their attention toward Daesh.
"The terrorists arrived at the airport in a taxi,” Yildirim said. "We will share more details about the attack later. There was no security lapse at the airport.”
Turkey has been rocked by a series of bombings since 2014, and the attacks have been increasing in frequency. In some cases, Kurdish militants have claimed responsibility, but in others, including ones this year in Istanbul’s old city and on its main pedestrian boulevard, Turkish officials have blamed the Islamic State.
Analysts noted that attacks involving multiple suicide bombers take time to prepare and are not typically attempted on very short notice.
"Unfortunately, we see the side effects of a disastrous Syria policy that has brought terrorism into the heart of Istanbul and Ankara,” said Suat Kiniklioglu, a former lawmaker who is now chairman of the Center for Strategic Communication, a research organization, in Ankara. "This is obviously intended to create an atmosphere of chaos and hit the economy and tourism.”
When the attack happened, Asli Aydintasbas, an analyst and writer on Turkish affairs, was on a plane bound for Istanbul but was rerouted to Ankara, where the airport was filled with stranded and confused tourists, double-checking with airport workers that they had in fact landed elsewhere.
"Our world is turned upside down,” said Aydintasbas, who has chronicled Turkey’s descent in to chaos in recent years in her columns.
Referring to Istanbul, and the stature it attained in recent years as a global tourist destination, she said: "Now this is a Middle Eastern country where these things happen.”