With Washington in London, terror targets UK in Turkey

Twin blasts in Istanbul •Carbombs se...


			Twin blasts in Istanbul
			•Carbombs set off by suspected Islamic fundamentalists kill at least 27 and wound 450. British Consulate and HSBC Bank headquarters in Istanbul wrecked. British Consul General Roger Short among 15 killed in his mission. The method • Witness said green van with the markings of a food company drove into the consulate gate as it exploded, the same technique used in the synagogue attacks. Al Qaeda at work • Caller to Anatolian news agency claimed responsibility on behalf of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and the local Islamic Great Eastern Raiders Front. Story continues below this ad Why Turkey • Turkey, a NATO member, is one of Washington’s closest political and military allies in the Muslim world. Its govt has Islamist roots but its policies are strongly pro-Western; seen as soft, vulnerable target. Terror Timing • Attacks come as US President Bush is in London to meet British PM Tony Blair. Only 5 days after suicide bombers carried out a twin attack on Istanbul synagogues, killing 25. Pak fingerprint • DNA tests say two Turkish nationals bombed synagogues. • Turkish Daily News said police found pieces of a Pakistani passport believed to belong to one.

Suspected Islamist suicide car bombers killed at least 27 people and wounded hundreds in Istanbul on Thursday in a strike against Britain that US and British leaders called a challenge to their war on terror.

The Consulate’s chaplain said Consul-General Roger Short, a career diplomat, was among the 15 killed at the mission where a van pulled up on a busy street and exploded, leaving a huge crater. ‘‘We knew it was a bomb when an arm came flying through the window,’’ said a doctor at a clinic near HSBC.

At both bomb sites, men and women wept amid a chaos of wrecked cars and dismembered bodies. Thick black smoke rose into a blue sky as emergency services screamed through the streets.

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