Turkish authorities investigate al-Qaida links to bombings

TURKISH officials investigated claims that the al-Qaida terrorist network was responsible for the truck bombings that devastated two Istanbul synagogues and killed 23 people, the prime minister said early yesterday.

A Turkish newspaper said the driver of one of the trucks was filmed by the security camera outside the Neve Shalom synagogues. But it quoted police officials as saying the driver’s identity was still unclear. Hurriyet said the son of the truck’s owner has been missing for two weeks.

On Sunday, two Arabic-language newspapers received separate statements claiming Osama bin Laden’s group was responsible for the bombings, which Turkish officials said were likely the work of suicide bombers who detonated explosives in pickup trucks.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish authorities were investigating the al-Qaida claims, and there was no way to independently confirm the authenticity of the claims. “Our security teams, our intelligence services have to work to determine the extent of truth of the claims,” Mr Erdogan said.

Earlier, Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said the attacks were likely carried out by someone with international links, and rejected earlier claims of responsibility by a tiny Turkish Islamic militant group, saying it did not have the capacity to launch the sophisticated attacks.

“It is very likely that there is an international connection. We are not ruling out any possibility, including al-Qaida involvement,” he said.

Mr Aksu said the bombings appeared to be suicide attacks.

A Turkish intelligence official said that security forces had been expecting a suicide strike but said it was very difficult to prevent such an action.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said one person was still being questioned in Istanbul over the synagogue blasts but that the person didn’t appear to have ties with al-Qaida.

Turkish newspaper reports yesterday said that four Turks who were questioned and released on Sunday included some who allegedly provided fake passports to three al-Qaida suspects captured in Turkey last year as they illegally entered from Iran.

Istanbul’s governor, Muammer Guler, said yesterday that more people had been detained in the attacks, according to private Turk NTV, but did not say when.

The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades claimed Saturday’s attacks in an e-mail to the London-based paper al-Quds al Arabi, saying it had learned that Israeli intelligence agents were inside the synagogues. It’s not clear that the group exists, though it has been linked in the past to al-Qaida.

The London-based weekly Al-Majalla also received an e-mailed responsibility claim that said al-Qaida carried out the Istanbul attacks, as well as the November 12 car bomb attack outside the Italian police headquarters in Nasariyah, Iraq that killed 19 Italians and 14 other people.

The explosions, set off two minutes apart, devastated Neve Shalom, Istanbul’s largest synagogue and symbolic center to the city’s 25,000-member Jewish community, and the Beth Israel synagogue about three miles away.

At least six Jews at Beth Israel were among those killed in the blasts, which also wounded 303 people, including Jews and Muslims passers-by.

Sixty-six of the wounded remained hospitalised, with 10 in intensive care units, NTV said yesterday.

Some analysts believe Saturday’s attacks were meant to warn to Turkey’s Islamic-rooted government against keeping close relations with Israel and the West.

Turkey, a predominantly Muslim nation which has long had a secular regime, is an ally of Israel and the United States and is NATO’s only Muslim member.

“Turkey is on the al-Qaida’s hit list,” said Sami Kohen, a commentator with Milliyet newspaper.

“In their eyes, Turkey is a country that has close ties to the West. It also is in close cooperation with Israel.”

Turkey’s parliament agreed last month to let the government send troops to Iraq to relieve US forces there, but retracted the offer in the face of strong Iraqi opposition.