Umit Bayrak, Seckin Mandaci and Evren Hidiroglu who had been detained in northwestern town of Gebze after the suicide car bomb attacks in Istanbul talked about their experiences at Al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan where 450 Turkish ’students’ received training.
| "Yasss. I was majoring in high explosives..." |
Seckin Mandaci (code name: Abdusselam) said, ’’the place we went was the Ekrat camp near Jalalabad. After the religious, political and military training, we were digging foxholes. In the evenings, we were praying, reading holy Koran and making religious talks. We were obliged to go to sleep at 10 p.m. There was no electricity and listening to radio was prohibited. I knew Ilyas Kuncak who blew himself up with a lorry in front of the HSBC in Istanbul and his son-in-law Abdulkadir Karakus. We got acquainted with each other nearly six months ago and met for several times.’’
Enver Hidiroglu (code name: Ensar)said, ’’I entered the Ekrat camp with the help of Ali Uzum whose code name is Abu Muhammad. During a bomb training, the hand-made bomb exploded accidentally and I lost two of my fingers. I had doctors cure my left hand as I told them that I was wounded during war. People at the camp were very pleased with the September 11 attacks. After those attacks, the camp was evacuated.’’
Umit Bayrak (code name: Zeyd) said, ’’Gurcan Bac whose code name is Ebu Omar, the person who is frequently mentioned for the bombings in Istanbul was one of the top men at the Ekrat camp. Burhan Kus whose code name is Hamza was the man responsible for training. We were seven men and they gave us numbers. I was the number one. Although we did not cover our faces at camp, we wore masks when we went to lunch. We were not allowed to talk to other groups. Our camp official has us swear to God that we would not talk to anybody. The first phase took three months. Later, Burhan Kus ordered me to give bomb training to eight new comers. I taught them lessons about preparation of bombs with acetone, ammonium nitrate, artificial fertilizer and potassium nitrate. We were wearing masks also during those lessons. I don’t know the exact place of the camp but there was a motorway 200-300 meters south of it. We were using water of a stream. There was a dining hall, laboratory and arsenal at the camp in addition to houses of Gurcan Bac and Burhan Kus. The training programme is as follows: 04.00: ritual ablution, praying, reading Koran
05.30: sports
07.00: breakfast
08.00: resting
08.30: study of hadiths and conversation
09.00: theoretical and practical weapon training
10.30: cooking
12.00: lunch and praying
14.00: bomb preparation and explosives training
15.30: praying and leisure time
22.00: sleep No wonder they are so ineffective at times, only three hours of weapon and bomb training each day. |