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| Europe |
| More on Turkey Bombings - Arrests Made! |
| 2003-11-21 |
| Turkish investigators on Friday arrested suspects in the deadly suicide bombings on the British consulate and a London-based bank that have been blamed on al-Qaida. Foreign governments, meanwhile, warned more terrorist attacks could target Turkey. Turkish security forces were on high alert. Security was tightened at public buildings and foreign institutions, and Istanbul police were stopping and searching pickup trucks like those that shattered the British consulate and the HSBC bank building. British police anti-terrorist experts headed to Turkey to help the investigation. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul confirmed the arrests but would not give details or say how the suspects were linked to Thursday’s blasts. The attacks came five days after suicide bombers hit two synagogues in Istanbul. The daily newspaper Hurriyet said police were interrogating seven people in the attacks, which killed at least 27 people. The paper also said police believe the suicide bombers were two Turkish men linked to the perpetrators of the synagogue attacks, which killed 23 people. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to defeat the attackers, who struck during the Islamic month of Ramadan. "Those who bloodied this holy day and massacred innocent people will account for it in both worlds," he said. "They will be damned until eternity." well said. Unlike the tacit approval given to the terrorists by a lot of American Muslims. In Washington, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the attacks bore the marks of an al-Qaida operation. Saturday’s synagogue attacks also were blamed on al-Qaida. The back-to-back attacks raised fears that Islamic extremists were targeting Turkey, because it is a rare example of a secular but mostly Muslim democracy, with close ties to the United States, European nations and Israel. Istanbul may have been targeted "because Turkey is a successful democracy, it is overwhelming Islamic, and in democracy and freedom recently elected an Islamic party ... that is also democratic and forward looking," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who flew to Istanbul following Thursday’s attack. Britain warned citizens against nonessential travel to major Turkish cities. Straw said the decision to take that step was based on intelligence reports of a threat of more attacks. Other nations, including the United States, Germany and Australia, issued similar warnings — prompting fears that drops in foreign investment and tourism could hurt the country’s recovery from its worst recession in decades. The Istanbul stock exchange remained closed Friday after plummeting 7 percent before it was shut down Thursday. In efforts to talk up the economy, Straw said Britain would intensify its backing for Turkey’s long-standing bid to join the European Union. The bombings against British targets coincided with President Bush’s visit to London. As with the synagogue bombings, most of the victims were Muslim Turks. At least 450 people were injured, said Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu. Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler said four of the 16 dead at the consulate were British, including Consul-General Roger Short and his personal assistant, Lisa Hallworth. He also said that the death toll was likely to rise. One woman was reported brain dead Friday, although authorities did not immediately add her to the list of fatalities. Hurriyet quoted police sources as tentatively identifying the two bombers in Thursday’s attack as Azad Ekinci, 27, and Feridun Ugurlu, whose age was not immediately known. The pair had been named in earlier Turkish newspaper reports as having links with the synagogue bombings. Hurriyet said Ekinci and Ugurlu traveled to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on Oct. 28 and identified Ekinci as a schoolmate of one of the men suspected in the synagogue attacks. Earlier reports said Ekinci had traveled to Iran, received military and explosive training in Pakistan between 1997-99 and fought in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya. An unidentified caller to the semiofficial Anatolia news agency said al-Qaida and a small militant Turkish group, the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders Front jointly claimed responsibility for both sets of attacks. Witnesses said one pickup truck exploded in front of the HSBC bank building. The second crashed through the gate of the British consulate destroying annexes to the main building. Hurriyet reported that police in front of the consulate opened fire as the men approached the consulate, but failed to stop them before they detonated the explosives. Two of the dead where Turkish policemen. Authorities arrested six people Wednesday in the synagogue bombings. A court charged five with "attempting to overthrow the constitutional structure," which carries a sentence of life imprisonment. The sixth was charged with "helping illegal organizations," punishable by five years in prison, Anatolia said. No trial date was set. The two suicide bombers who attacked the synagogues were identified as Turks who Gul said had visited Afghanistan. Al-Qaida and the Turkish IBDA-C also claimed responsibility for that blast. |
| Posted by:Jarhead |
| #4 if a tree falls in the forest... |
| Posted by: B 2003-11-21 10:48:12 PM |
| #3 if a tree falls in the forest... |
| Posted by: B 2003-11-21 10:48:01 PM |
| #2 AND>>>the article above ( on today's rantburg re: Short and the bank) cements it in stone. AQ wants to make sure their point is clear. Keep it up and so will we. Turkey wants those contracts. We should make them happen in secret and once the ink on all signature lines is dry, present the done deeds for the world to see. It's a good strategy by AQ, to intimidate Turkey this way. But if Turkey and Iraq manage it, it will be make a huge, long-term impact. AQ can see that and they are going to do EVERYTHING possible to prevent it. Somebody needs to take over for Mr. Short, provide extra protection for all the players, and make it happen ASAP. |
| Posted by: B 2003-11-21 10:47:12 AM |
| #1 I think this is what's really bugging them: (from yesterday's rantburg) The current head of Iraq's temporary Governing Council, Jalal Talebani, has arrived in Ankara earlier today. State Minister Kursad Tuzmen received Talebani at the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat. Tuzmen noted that the aim of the government was to improve the relations in trade and politics between Turkey and Iraq also on yesterday's rantburg... A suicide bomb attack in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk has killed three people and injured at least six. The target was an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, whose leader Jalal Talabani heads the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. That, combined with all their blather about how all secular democracies are legitimate targets, makes it pretty clear in my mind that they are trying to intimidate Tapyippy not work with Iraq. That terrifies them for all of the obvious reasons and you can expect AQ to go ballistic until it stops. |
| Posted by: B 2003-11-21 10:16:01 AM |