Istanbul terror attack: Erdogan says Turkey will not be divided

With flags across Turkey at half-staff and the nation observing a day of mourning, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proclaimed the terror attack on Istanbul's airport "will not divide or split our country."

Erdogan promised the government will "not let down our people." He said by killing dozens of civilians, including women and children, the terrorists were not true Muslims.

"This is not Islamic. Taking one person's life means going straight to hell," he said Wednesday from the capital of Ankara, adding, "No terrorist organization will come between what we are."

Erdogan's televised comments came a day after he said in a written statement that an attack during the final days of the holy month of Ramadan show the attackers had no regard for faith or values.

No terror group has taken responsibility for the attack, in which three men arrived by taxi at the international terminal and launched their horror armed with rifles and suicide bomb vests.

Speculation, based on the nature of the attack, has focused on the Islamic State, which has struck in Turkey before but rarely taken credit for those bombings.

Interior Minister Efkan Ala said "all information and evidence" points to ISIS. "But nothing is for certain."

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said initial findings "suggest all three attackers first opened fire then detonated themselves."

That method is similar to the mass shooting and suicide bombings at Paris' Bataclan concert hall last November. ISIS claimed responsibility for that massacre, which left 89 people dead.

ISIS has a history of airport attacks. In March, it claimed responsibility for dual suicide bombings at the main airport in Brussels, Belgium. At least 10 people died in those blasts.

And just like the Brussels attack, the terrorists in Istanbul took a taxi to the airport.

The Istanbul taxi driver was interviewed by police and released, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported.

The director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, using another acronym for the Islamic State, said he thinks the terror attack "certainly bears the hallmarks of ISIL's depravity."

John Brennan said he wasn't surprised that ISIS hasn't said it was responsible. The group rarely takes credit for attacks in Turkey.

"I think what they do is they carry out these attacks to gain the benefits from it in terms of sending a signal to our Turkish partners," he told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.