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Turkish Police Detain 16 Bombing Suspects

Posted on: Monday, 3 May 2004, 06:00 CDT

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish police have detained 16 suspected members of a group linked to al-Qaida who were believed to have been planning a bomb attack during a June NATO summit in Istanbul that President Bush is expected to attend, police said Monday.

Police detained the 16 in an operation in the northwestern province of Bursa, a police statement said. It said the suspects were members of the al-Qaida-linked Ansar al-Islam, but gave no further details.

Private NTV television said eight others were detained in a simultaneous raid in Istanbul.

The NATO summit will be the first since Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia joined the alliance in April to take its membership to 26.

Turkey has heightened security ahead of the meeting, launching security sweeps throughout the country.

More than 60 people were killed in bomb attacks at two Istanbul synagogues and a London-based bank and the British Consulate in November 2003. Turkish officials have charged 69 suspected members of a Turkish al-Qaida cell in connection with the bombings. Trial is scheduled to begin later this month.

NTV said equipment to make remote-controlled bombs, books on bomb-making and CDs featuring Osama bin Laden were seized in the Bursa raid, which took place on April 29.

It showed footage of guns, rifles and electric equipment and clocks that were seized. It said some of the suspects had surveyed the site of a synagogue in Bursa.

The suspects were expected to appear before a court in Bursa later in the day.

An Islamic group based in northern Iraq also goes by the name Ansar al-Islam and is suspected in Feb. 1 bombings in Irbil that left 109 dead.

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Turkish group and the northern Iraq group operated independently, but shared "the same ideology and tactics."

The Turkish group increased in size following the U.S. war in Iraq, the official said.

Earlier this month, authorities rounded up dozens of alleged members of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, in simultaneous raids in Turkey, Italy, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The crackdown was seen as the fruit of increased international security cooperation before the NATO summit and the Athens Summer Olympics.

According to Turkish newspapers, more than 30,000 police and other security forces, including hundreds of snipers, are expected to be on duty at the summit. Police are also reportedly keeping a close eye on anti-war, anti-globalization, and various leftist groups ahead of the summit, fearing they could stage protests or attacks.

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