The suicide attackers who launched the deadly Istanbul airport assault were planning to take dozens of passengers hostage, Turkish media reported Friday, as CCTV of the bombers’ faces emerged.

The suicide attackers who launched the deadly Istanbul airport assault were planning to take dozens of passengers hostage, Turkish media reported Friday, as CCTV of the bombers' faces emerged.

Turkish officials have pointed the finger of blame at the ISIL Takfiri group for Tuesday night's gun and bomb spree at Ataturk airport, which left 44 people dead including 19 foreigners.

The private NTV network reported that Istanbul police had detained 11 suspected ISIL militants over the attack, in addition to 13 rounded up on Thursday and another nine in the western port city of Izmir.

Officials say the men behind the latest in a series of deadly attacks to hit Turkey were a Russian, an Uzbek and a Kyrgyz national.

Turkish media identified the mastermind of the airport attack as Akhmet Chatayev, a Chechen, saying he had led an ISIL cell in Istanbul and found accommodation for the bombers.

Chatayev allegedly organized two deadly bombings this year in the heart of the city's Sultanahmet tourist district and the busy Istiklal shopping street, the Hurriyet newspaper said.

The pro-government Sabah newspaper reported that the attackers scouted the scene and planned to take dozens of passengers hostage inside before carrying out a massacre.

But they began the assault early after attracting suspicion, Sabah said.
CCTV images released by police show the three alleged attackers arriving, wearing dark coats over their suicide vests -- clothing that was much too heavy for a hot summer night.

More images show a plainclothes police officer confronting one of the men by an elevator and asking to see his identification. The attacker pulls out a gun and shoots him.