TURKEY: POLICE INVESTIGATE BOTCHED SUICIDE BOMBING AT AN ISTANBUL FREEMASONS BUILDING.

Record ID: 358807

  • Title: TURKEY: POLICE INVESTIGATE BOTCHED SUICIDE BOMBING AT AN ISTANBUL FREEMASONS BUILDING.
  • Date: 10th March 2004
  • Summary: (U3) ISTANBUL, TURKEY (MARCH 10, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WS/NIGHT: FORENSIC MEDICINE AUTHORITY. 0.03 2. TRACK/NIGHT: BODY ON STRETCHER BEING CARRIED FROM AMBULANCE TO BUILDING / SCU: PEOPLE CRYING AND HUGGING EACH OTHER. (2 SHOTS) 0.26 3. TRACK/NIGHT: FORENSIC MEDICINE AUTHORITY OFFICIAL IN SPECIAL CLOTHING. 0.37 4. TRACK/NIGHT: BODY IN
  • Embargoed: 25th March 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ISTANBUL, TURKEY
  • Country: Turkey
  • Reuters ID: LVA10JKFAXLBEB5EJATNIJVWV9YZ
  • Story Text: Turkish police investigate Istanbul blast; analysts
    say it bears no hallmarks of al-Qaeda.



    A botched suicide bombing at an Istanbul freemasons
    building stirred memories of bloody attacks last November
    that killed 61 people. Analysts on Wednesday (March 10, 2004),
    though, doubted it marked a fresh al-Qaeda-linked bomb
    drive, but bore the hallmarks of a small "domestic" group
    rather than any foreign-backed network.

    Two would-be suicide bombers struck in the Asian part
    of Turkey's biggest city late on Tuesday (March 9). One
    killed himself and a restaurant waiter, but the other
    failed to set off his explosives and was taken to hospital
    with five other wounded.

    Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler told reporters two men
    had entered a restaurant on the ground floor of the
    three-storey building at 2010 GMT after firing at the
    windows and shooting a security guard in the foot.

    "We are trying to find out if there is a link (with the
    previous Istanbul attacks). For the moment we see no such
    connection. The style of the 15 and 20 November attacks is
    very different. We are checking on the materials used and
    the identity of the attacker. We have taken samples. Our
    colleagues will be working till the morning," he said.

    About 40 people had been eating at the restaurant at
    the time of the attack, but apart from broken windows the
    building suffered little damage. Guler said the explosion
    occurred near the entrance and the wounded were all seated
    nearby.

    No group has so far claimed responsibility and
    security experts were combing the scene for clues on
    Wednesday.

    Last November's attacks targeted two synagogues, the
    British consulate and a British-owned bank, killing 61
    people and wounding 644 in one of the worst spates of
    peacetime violence in modern Turkish history. Turkish
    authorities linked those blasts to Osama bin Laden's
    al-Qaeda network.


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