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| Europe |
| Sakra present at the killing of Turkish driver in Iraq |
| 2005-08-14 |
| A Syrian Al Qaeda member accused of involvement in the Istanbul bomb blasts of two years ago has also said that he was present at the video taped execution of a Turkish chauffeur in Iraq. Luai Sakra, currently being held at the Besiktas Court in Istanbul, was identified in different videotapes of Turkish chauffeurs whose throats were cut by Islamic militants in Iraq over the past year. During questioning at the courthouse, Sakra pointed at his image on the videotape of the Turkish citizen's murder, saying "I was there" to the audience, and even smiling from time to time. Right before the taped execution of the Turk takes place on video, Sakra pointed at the gun on the table in the video, saying "Look, now they will cut off his head. In a little while, I will take the gun off the table so the blood doesn't get onto it. Because blood destroys the inner workings of the gun." Sakra, who had worked at one point in the laundry service of a US base in Iraq, was also able to identify another Istanbul bombing suspect present in the group of militants responsible for the videotaped execution of Turkish citizen Murat Yuce. The suspect, Habib Aktas, was fingered by Sakras as being partially behind the financing of the 2003 Istanbul bombings. Sakras, who said he gave the final orders for the Istanbul bombings, said this: "I gave the orders, but as far as the targets, Habib Aktas made the decisions. We fought because so many civilians were killed. I had with me 6 kilos of C-4 explosive. I could have used it against a 50 person group in Antalya, but I decided not to, so that Turkish civilians wouldn't die. I was planning on attacking Israeli ships." Sakra, who was caught in possession of 6 false passports, claimed that he had been picked up and released twice before by the Turkish Intelligence Service, or the MIT. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |