'Seven held over Istanbul bombings'

Seven people were being questioned over the British consulate and HSBC bombings, a leading Turkish newspaper said today.

The paper also identified two men as the suicide bombers who attacked the Consulate General and the bank in Istanbul yesterday, killing at least 27 people in Turkey’s worst terrorist outrage.

Terrorists targeted Turkey for the second time in a week, detonating pick-up trucks laden with explosives in front of the British Consulate General in Istanbul in and a London-based bank, killing at least 27 people, including the Consul General, Roger Short.

The bombings, which coincided with President George Bush’s visit to London, were quickly blamed on al-Qaida.

The explosions, just minutes apart, came just days after suicide bombers struck two Istanbul synagogues, killing 23. That attack was also blamed on al-Qaida.

At 450 people were injured, said Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu. Istanbul governor. Muammer Guler said four of the 16 dead at the consulate were British. He said that the death toll was likely to rise.

Today, the Hurriyet newspaper quoted police sources identifying the two bombers as two Turkish men: 27-year-old Azad Ekinci and Feridun Ugurlu. Ekinci, a schoolmate of one of the men identified in last Saturday’s synagogue bombings, and Ugurlu, travelled to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on October 28 before the bombings, Hurriyet said.

Hurriyet also reported that police had detained and were interrogating seven people in connection with yesterday’s bombings.

An unidentified caller to the semi-official Anatolia news agency said al Qaida and a small military Turkish group, the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders’ Front, or IBDA-C, jointly claimed responsibility for attacks.

“Once again we are reminded of the evil these terrorists pose to people everywhere and to our way of life,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in London.

“There must be no holding back, no compromise, no hesitation in confronting this menace.”

Mr Short and his personal assistant Lisa Hallworth were among the dead. Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw rushed to Istanbul.

Witnesses said one pick-up truck exploded in front of the HSBC bank building, devastating its 18-storey façade. The second crashed through the gate of the Consulate General, destroying annexes to the main building.

The vehicle that hit the consulate looked like a food delivery truck with the explosives in large metal food containers, Anatolia quoted police as saying.

“Cars were flying, there was blood everywhere,” said Mehmet Dag, 26, a delivery man who was just 100 yards away from the consulate building when the blast took place.

Hurriyet reported today that police in front of the consulate opened fire as the men approached the building, but failed to stop them before they detonated the explosives.

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.”

In a telephone conversation with Blair, Erdogan vowed to step up his nation’s fight against terror.

“There is no faltering,” Erdogan said, according to Anatolia. “We shall continue our fight against terrorism with more fervour.”

Aksu said the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers and were similar to the synagogue bombings, in which hundreds of pounds of fertiliser-based explosives were packed into trucks.

Aksu said that at the British consulate the “man came, rammed into the gates with a speeding truck, set it off, blowing himself up”.

The other bomb exploded minutes earlier in from of the HSBC bank’s headquarters in the affluent Levent district of Istanbul. HSBC is the world’s second largest bank.

The explosion was so strong that it scattered body parts and bloodied pieces of charred metal across the four-line highway in front of the building and into a cemetery on the other side of the road.

A policeman could be seen in the cemetery collecting body parts, including a charred, severed leg that he put inside of a plastic bag.

Burned-out cars, some with their doors blown open, sat in front of the building. The smoke and stench of burning wires was so strong that some police at the site wore surgical masks.

The blast sheared off the white façade of the building, exposing the grey cement beneath.

The windows of the building were blown out and scraps of white ceiling material dangled down, caught on torn electrical wires swaying in a soft breeze.

The second bomb tore apart the wall surrounding the garden of the British consulate in Beyoglu, a historical district that is popular with tourists.

The US consulate moved months ago from Beyoglu to a remote area outside of the heart of Istanbul.

Authorities arrested six people on Wednesday in connection with 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 organisations”, 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 according to Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul had visited Afghanistan. Turkish authorities were investigating links with al-Qaida.

Al-Qaida and the Turkish IBDA-C also claimed responsibility for that blast.