Bomb explodes ahead of Bush visit to Turkey

A suspected terrorist and three others were injured today when a bomb went off prematurely in the hands of the bomber at a small hotel in southern Turkey, private CNN-Turk television reported.

Tensions run high in Turkey ahead of US President George W. Bush’s arrival later today.

The explosion occurred at Hatipoglu Hotel in the Mediterranean resort town of Alanya in the Antalya province, the television said.

Meanwhile police sealed off streets in Istanbul, searched cars and detonated suspicious packages as part of a massive security operation ahead of the president's visit.

Security has been high since four people were killed in a double bombing two days ago.

Around the Istanbul convention centre where a Nato summit begins on Monday, police installed heavy, dark-blue steel barricades. Officers searched the trunks of cars and frisked people travelling along the road leading to Istanbul’s airport, causing gridlock on already clogged streets.

Helicopters flew near the summit area and over an Ottoman palace where a dinner for Nato leaders will be held.

The security measures came after the two explosions on Thursday – one outside the Ankara hotel where Bush is expected to stay tonight, an attack that injured three people, and a second blast on an Istanbul bus that killed four people and wounded 14 others.

Police in the capital, Ankara, were preparing to close several roads to traffic hours ahead of the president’s arrival.

He will meet with Turkish leaders in Ankara tomorrow before proceeding to Istanbul for the NATO summit.

Elsewhere across the country, two small bomb explosions overnight caused minor damage but no injuries in the southern city of Adana, Anatolia news agency reported.

Police also defused a remote-controlled bomb placed under a car in the Black Sea port town of Zonguldak, the agency said.

“Such incidents have a negative effect on our country and our future,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday.

Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler identified the bomber in the Istanbul attack as a 29-year-old woman who was a member of a far-left-wing militant group. The woman, who was wanted in connection with two previous attacks, died in the attack, apparently when the bomb accidentally detonated on her lap.

Guler did not say which group the woman belong to, but several militant pro-Marxist groups have carried out attacks in Istanbul in the past.

Militant leftists appeared to be behind both bombings, authorities said. Militant Kurdish, Islamic and leftist groups are active in the country, and security in Istanbul has been of special concern since November, when four suicide truck bombings blamed on al-Qaida killed more than 60 people.

Scores of people believed to be linked to radical groups have been detained in security sweeps in recent weeks.

More than 23,000 police will be on duty during the Nato summit, which Bush, Prime Minister Tony Blair and France’s Jacques Chirac – among others – are to attend.

Daily protests have been held against the summit and the Bush visit. Mr Bush is extremely unpopular in Turkey, where most people opposed the Iraq war.

Some 500 worshippers gathered after prayers at Istanbul’s 16th-century Beyazit mosque, some chanting “Death to Bush.” The protesters later dispersed peacefully.

Protests also were reported in Ankara and elsewhere in the country.

In Istanbul, police detained two demonstrators who hung a banner from a suspension bridge spanning the Bosporus that read: “Let’s break up Nato, the murderer of peoples.”