Turkey Breaks Up Al Qaeda Cell Behind Blasts
Fri Dec 26,12:29 PM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Daren Butler
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish authorities have broken up the Istanbul cell behind last month's truck bombings and have confirmed its links to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network, the city's governor said on Friday.
AFP
Slideshow: Terrorist Attacks in Turkey
The four blasts targeted two synagogues and British interests in Turkey's commercial capital, killing 61 people and wounding several hundred. It was the worst week of peacetime violence in modern Turkey's history.
"The suicide attacks were carried out by elements trying to organize for al Qaeda in Turkey," governor Muammer Guler told a news conference in Istanbul, held to announce progress in the investigation.
"We can comfortably say that we have broken up the organization's Istanbul activities," he said.
In the wake of the attacks, the United States and Britain warned against non-essential travel to NATO (news - web sites) ally Turkey. President Bush (news - web sites) said Turkey had become a key battle front in the "war on terror."
The governor said 35 people have been charged so far in connection with the blasts and that a further 10 people were sent on Friday to a state security court, which will decide whether they too should be charged.
Police displayed five Kalashnikov rifles, pistols, walkie-talkies and eight sacks of RDX explosives seized in the course of the probe. More than six tonnes of chemical fertilizer were used in the four blasts, Guler said.
The first two attacks occurred on November 15 when suicide bombers targeted two synagogues in the city. Five days later, two more bombers struck at the British consulate and the Turkish headquarters of the HSBC bank. The majority of the dead were Muslim Turks, most of whom had been passing by at the time.
Turkish police launched a huge nationwide investigation into the blasts, detaining a total of 159 people across the country.
AL QAEDA CONFESSION
One of those sent to court on Friday, Harun Ilhan, was also taken to the site of the city's Neve Shalom synagogue to help police recreate what had happened.
Media reports said Ilhan had confessed to being a member of the al Qaeda network and said he had lived for a year in Afghanistan (news - web sites) after evading military service in Turkey.
The Cumhuriyet newspaper described Ilhan as the number two man in the Turkish al Qaeda cell, saying he had admitted to organizing the attacks two years ago. The organizers had initially considered attacking a passenger ship, but changed plans due to difficulties in carrying such an attack out.
At Friday's news conference, the governor tried to calm fears that there could be further attacks.
"This group has definitely been prevented from carrying out another attack in the future, so there is no need for panic," Guler said.
Turkey, like many other countries including the United States, has beefed up security over the winter holiday period amid fears of further bomb attacks.
Security experts say Turkey is an attractive target for militant Islamists who hate its secular political system and close links with the United States and Israel.
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