The Georgian authorities have identified one of the gunmen killed in a recent counterterrorism operation as a suspect in a suicide bombing in Turkey last year.
The Georgian State Security Service said in a statement on December 1 that it had identified the gunman who blew himself up as Akhmed Chatayev.
Turkish officials have named Chatayev, a Chechen extremist known to be a senior member of the Islamic State militant group, as a possible organizer of the suicide bombing at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport that killed 45 people in June 2016.
One member of Georgia's special forces and three gunmen died in the 20-hour counterterrorism operation in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on November 21-22.
Georgian authorities said they were investigating to see how the men had crossed the border into Georgia.
