Turkey Warned of More Attacks After Istanbul Blasts

November 21, 2003

ISTANBUL (AFP) - Turkey announced it had made several arrests over the deadly bombings of British targets in Istanbul described as Turkey's own "September 11", as Britain and the United States warned of more attacks.

Thursday's blasts came five days after suicide bombers drove explosive-laden trucks at synagogues in the ancient city that straddles East and West and coinicided with a controversial state visit to London by US President George W. Bush to London.

The attacks which killed 27 people, also cast a pall over this predominantly Muslim but strictly secular nation as it prepared to celebrate the feast marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

Police suspect the attacks were the work of two Turkish Islamists also involved in Saturday's synagogue bombings, the mass circulation Hurriyet newspaper reported Friday, adding that seven people had been detained.

"Some people have been arrested, but it is too early to give information about them," Gul told a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

"Turkey will definitely not bow down to terrorism and will continue to fight terrorism," Gul said Friday, as Straw called for the world to unite to combat the global terrorism threat.

Turkish investigators were working around the clock searching through the rubble at the British consulate and the headquarters of Britain's biggest bank HSBC after the powerful near-simultaneous blasts.

Among the dead is the British consul general Roger Short and another three British nationals, while more than 450 people were injured.

Straw joined the chorus of world leaders condemning the bombings as an indiscriminate "attack on civilisation" by "ruthless fanatics" and vowed to stand by Turkey in the fight against the scourge of terrorism.

"Britain under attack," thundered Britain's Daily Express newpaper after the most brazen strike against British interests abroad since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March.

"9/11 repeated in Istanbul," said the Turkish Daily News, "Al-Qaeda at war with Turkey" said Radikal, as newpapers carried graphic pictures of scenes of devastation and panic and injured victims covered in blood.

Turkey has introduced tough security measures around key sites including the prime minister's office, while some embassies, shopping malls and schools have been closed, press reports said.

Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said the bombings were carried out by suicide bombers who used two pick-up trucks loaded with explosives, the same method used in the synagogue attacks.

"There must be no holding back, no compromise, no hesitation in confronting this menace, in attacking it wherever and whenever we can, and in defeating it utterly," British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's closest ally in the war on Iraq, said Thursday.

Bush, standing at his side, vowed to crush terrorists who "hate freedom."

"The terrorists hope to intimidate. They hope to demoralise. They particularly want to intimidate free nations," he said. "They are not going to succeed. We are united in our determination to fight this evil wherever it is found."

Turkey's Anatolia news agency quoted an anonymous telephone caller saying the attacks were a joint action by the al-Qaeda terror group and the Islamic Front of Raiders of the Great Orient (IBDA-C) -- a radical Sunni Muslim group whose aim is to set up an Islamic state and "stop the oppression of Muslims."

The two groups had also claimed responsibility for suicide bombings on Saturday which killed 25 people and injured more than 300 at two synagogues.

"More attacks are possible, as well as the possibility of fires, gas line explosions and collapsing buildings near the bomb sites," said the US State Department, adding that its consulate would be closed.

The British Foreign Office issued a similar warning and advised British citizens against travel to all major Turkish cities.

The UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning the attacks, as leaders around the world rallied behind Britain and Turkey and said the bombings should serve as a wake-up call to reinforce the war on terror.

The council voiced its determination to combat all forms of terrorism and called on all nations to "cooperate in efforts to find and bring to justice the perpetrators, organisers and sponsors of these terrorist attacks."

HSBC announced it had temporarily closed all its branches in Turkey for security reasons, but a spokesman said there was no question of the bank withdrawing from the country.

The Istanbul Stock Exchange, where the main index dropped more than seven percent on Thursday, announced it would shut its doors until the beginning of December, while at least two international club football ties due to be played in Turkey were postponed.

Anatolia quoted Turkish police as saying they believed the bombs used in Thursday's attacks were of the same type as those used in the synagogue blasts, which officials say were carried out by two Turkish Islamists from the impoverished eastern town of Bingol.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is expected to visit Turkey later Friday, acknowledged that security lapses could have played a role in the blasts.

"The security forces are assessing all intelligence on this issue... Undoubtedly there could have been deficencies," Erdogan said.

Turkey is considered a target by some Islamic radicals because although its population is predominantly Muslim, it has a strictly secular political system and a pro-Western stance that includes membership of NATO and close ties with the United States and Israel.

Muslim radicalism blossomed in Turkey in the 1970s, with a number of groups launching violent campaigns to install an Islamic state and overthrow the system founded by the father of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, 80 years ago.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&ncid=1504&e=1&u=/afp/20031121/ts_afp/turkey_attacks_britain_031121112640