Time for Turkey to eliminate once harboured militants: Qamar Agha

Defence expert Qamar Agha on Wednesday said the suicide terror attack at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport is a clear indication of the fact that Turkey's earlier stand of using these militants to topple the secular government of neighbouring Syria has now backfired.

Agha told ANI Turkey has been the target of Islamic militants for quite some time.

"But on the same time it was Turkey which has helped them build these militant organisations. Turkey was using these militants for a very long period of time to topple secular government of neighbouring Syria and now it has backfired," he added.

Agha said both Syria and Iraq are now under pressure.

"So, therefore, these militants are attacking different countries and Turkey is also one of the targets. Turkey is under pressure from different nations," he added while stating the time has come that Turkey should eliminate these militants.

In Turkey, at least 36 people were killed and 90 others injured in a suicide gun and bomb attack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport.

Turkey has been hit by a string of deadly attacks in the past year, blamed on both Kurdish rebels and the Islamic State terrorist group.