TURKEY: POLICE IDENTIFY MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR BOMB ATTACK ON THE HSBC BANK IN ISTANBUL

Record ID: 355442

  • Title: TURKEY: POLICE IDENTIFY MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR BOMB ATTACK ON THE HSBC BANK IN ISTANBUL
  • Date: 2nd December 2003
  • Summary: (U6) ISTANBUL, TURKEY (NOVEMBER 30, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. MV ISTANBUL GOVERNOR MUAMMER GULER AND ISTANBUL POLICE CHIEF CELALETTIN CERRAH; MV JOURNALISTS (2 SHOTS) 0.11 2. (SOUNDBITE)(Turkish) ISTANBUL GOVERNOR, MUAMMER GULER SAYING "We have already stated that Feridun Ugurlu launched the attack on the British Consulate. It has been identified after th
  • Embargoed: 17th December 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ISTANBUL, TURKEY
  • Country: Turkey
  • Reuters ID: LVAE7WFCUG3R1Y35GNWVG23PEUFK
  • Story Text: Turkish police have identified the man responsible
    for the bomb attack on the HSBC bank in Istanbul.

    Istanbul governor, Muammer Guler announced on Sunday
    (November 30, 2003) that Turkish police had identified the fourth
    bomber in the Istanbul attack on November 20, the man who
    attacked the HSBC bank building.

    The governor, speaking at a news conference said the
    person was forty-seven year-old Ilyas (ill-iass) Kuncak
    (koun-djak). "We have already stated that Feridun Ugurlu
    launched the attack on the British Consulate. It has been
    identified after DNA tests that the attack on the HSBC bank
    has been done by the terrorist, the suicide bomber named
    Ilyas Kuncak, born in 1956, in Ankara Dikmen. With this,
    one has the exact information on the persons who made the
    four different attacks," governor Guler told reporters.

    Guler also mentioned a link with Al Qaeda for the
    attacks and added, "The link we mentioned with Al Qaeda for
    the first event has similarity for the second too."
    Groups linked with Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network
    have claimed responsibility for the truck bombings, which
    prompted U.S. President George W. Bush to say NATO member
    Turkey is now on the frontline of the "war on terrorism".

    A Turkish man was also held on Sunday charged with
    treason after police said he ordered the bombing of an
    Istanbul synagogue, one of four suicide attacks that killed
    61 people in Turkey's commercial capital this month. The
    unidentified man was detained on November 25 with a false
    identification card as he tried to travel from Turkey into
    Iran. His arrest was only announced by police on Saturday
    (November 29). He has been charged with seeking to
    overthrow Turkey's constitutional order by force, a crime
    equivalent to treason and carrying a life sentence.

    Deputy Istanbul Police Chief Halil Yilmaz said the
    suspect travelled to the Beth Israel synagogue site on
    November 15, the day of the bombing, and gave the final
    order for the attack.

    Turkey has charged 21 people with involvement in the
    simultaneous attacks on two Istanbul synagogues and
    similar twin attacks on British-based bank HSBC's Istanbul
    offices and the British consulate five days later.

    The synagogue bombings killed 29 people and 32 died in
    the attacks on HSBC and the British consulate. The ruling
    Justice and Development Party (AKP), suspected by Turkey's
    secular establishment for its Islamist roots, has condemned
    the bombings and pledged to track down the perpetrators.

    Ankara says all four suicide bombers were Turkish. The
    British embassy in Ankara said over the weekend the
    Istanbul consulate "will remain closed for some time".

    Limited postal applications for British visas will be
    considered by the embassy from December 1, the statement
    said.


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