TURKEY: TURKISH AUTHORITIES ARREST MAN SUSPECTED OF INVOLVEMENT IN ISTANBUL BOMBINGS

Record ID: 649165

  • Title: TURKEY: TURKISH AUTHORITIES ARREST MAN SUSPECTED OF INVOLVEMENT IN ISTANBUL BOMBINGS
  • Date: 23rd December 2003
  • Summary: (U7) ISTANBUL, TURKEY (DECEMBER 23, 2003)(REUTERS - NO ACCESS TURKEY) 1. STILL OF TURKISH PLAINCLOTHES POLICEMAN ESCORTING MEHMET KUS, SUSPECTED OF BEING INVOLVED IN RECENT ISTANBUL BLAST, FROM STATE SECURITY COURT 0.09 (U7) ISTANBUL, TURKEY (FILE - NOVEMBER 20, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 2. WIDE OF HSBC BUILDING 0.15 3. SLV FIREMEN /EMERGENCY WORKERS LOOKING AT WRECKAGE 0.25 4. PAN TO WRECKED CAR WITH BLOOD STAINS/ PAN UP BUILDING WITH WATER COMING OUT OF BUILDING 0.34 5. VARIOUS OF WRECKED CARS (2 SHOTS) 0.46 6. CLOSE OF BLOOD ON SEAT OF CAR 0.51 7. PAN OF BOMB SITE AND PEOPLE 1.00 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 7th January 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ISTANBUL, TURKEY
  • Country: Turkey
  • Reuters ID: LVADLXB65725OLS240HVBG84P3GH
  • Story Text: Turkish authorities arrest man suspected of
    involvement in Istanbul blast.



    Turkish authorities on Tuesday (December 23)
    arrested a suspect in last month's Istanbul bomb blasts
    after 12 bags of a substance used for making explosives
    were found at his home.

    The Anatolian state news agency said the man, named as
    Mehmet Kus, was charged with "aiding and abetting an
    illegal organisation" -- an apparent reference to the
    shadowy Turkish Islamist group believed to have carried out
    the attacks.

    It said Kus had blamed a relative for storing the
    potassium nitrate, a substance used in the Istanbul blasts,
    in his house.

    Sixty one people were killed and many hundreds wounded
    in twin attacks on two Jewish synagogues by suicide truck
    bombers on November 15 and in similarly synchronised
    attacks on British targets on November 20.

    Turkish state security courts have now arrested more
    than 30 people over the blasts and police have questioned
    more than 150.

    NTV television said Kus was among 20 people rounded up
    by police in Istanbul and the central Turkish city of Konya
    after a tipoff from another man already under arrest.

    Police were not immediately able to confirm the
    reports.

    Police say all four of the suicide bombers were from
    Turkey's impoverished and mainly ethnic Kurdish southeast,
    but they also suspect the involvement of an international
    organisation, possibly Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

    Last week, Turkey arrested a man claiming to have met
    bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001 and to have discussed with
    him the possibility of attacking U.S. targets in Turkey.

    The Hurriyet newspaper said the man, Adnan Ersoz, had
    admitted receiving $50,000 from an Iranian source to
    finance the Istanbul attacks.

    NTV said the 20 men detained by police this week
    included another Turkish man linked to al Qaeda and
    believed to be a ringleader of the group blamed for the
    Istanbul attacks.



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