Turkish authorities said Friday that they had dismantled a ring linked to Al Qaeda that was responsible for last month’s suicide bombings that targeted two synagogues and British interests.
The governor of Istanbul said at a news conference that the Turkish cell was part of Osama bin Laden’s network and that other planned attacks had been halted by arrests in recent weeks.
“The suicide attacks were carried out by elements trying to organize for Al Qaeda in Turkey,” said Gov. Muammer Guler. “We can comfortably say that we have broken up the organization’s Istanbul activities.”
Celalettin Cerrah, the city’s police chief, accompanied Guler at the news conference and displayed large quantities of military-grade explosives, electronic detonators and weapons that he said police had seized during the investigation.
Together, the suicide bombings killed 62 people and injured several hundred, stunning the country and touching off a hunt throughout Turkey and in neighboring countries.
The first two truck bombs exploded almost simultaneously outside two synagogues Nov. 15. Five days later, two more truck bombs exploded at the British Consulate and outside the Istanbul headquarters of HSBC, a London-based bank.
A little-known Turkish group, the Islamist Great Eastern Raiders Front, claimed responsibility for the attacks at the time. Authorities later said the organization had ties to Al Qaeda and some of its members had been trained at the network’s camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Intelligence analysts said the attacks were a type that occurs when a major terrorist group like Al Qaeda is under pressure and forced to reach out to smaller, disenfranchised organizations like the Turkish group.
Guler said Friday that members of the Turkish group were among 44 people charged so far in connection with the blasts. During the investigation, 159 people have been detained nationwide or sent back to Turkey from Syria.
What remains unclear is the extent of the links between the organizers of the Turkish attacks and Al Qaeda’s international network.
Nine of the 44 were charged Friday. Among them was Harun Ilhan, 32, suspected of being one of the planners of the Istanbul attacks. He was charged with a crime similar to treason. Ilhan had been taken to the site of the city’s Neve Shalom synagogue bombing to help police re-create the attack.
Turkish news reports said Ilhan has confessed to being a member of Al Qaeda and said he spent a year in Afghanistan. As the second in command in the Turkish cell, he began planning the attacks two years ago.
He told police that several additional attacks had been planned, including one on a foreign cruise liner. That attack was abandoned because it turned out to be too complicated.
The suspects had planned several “large-scale” attacks over the New Year’s holiday on U.S. and Israeli interests and luxury shopping malls in Istanbul, according to a police memo dated Dec. 22. The police later downplayed the threat.
Guler said police had seized 1,100 pounds of explosives.
Cerrah, the police chief, said Friday that the explosives seized recently were enough to build three to four truck bombs, similar to those used in last month’s attacks.
“All dimensions of the attacks, from the planning to activating, have been exposed by the Istanbul police,” Guler said. “They were carried out by the elements of Al Qaeda that were trying to create a structure in Turkey.”
Five to seven Al Qaeda members–the suspected leaders of the cell in Turkey–escaped after the bombings and are presumed to have left the country, Guler said.
Although travel warnings are in effect and security experts say that secular, western Turkey remains an attractive target for extremist groups, the city’s governor and top police official sought to calm jangled nerves, saying the group had been dismantled by the arrests and the authorities are confident that they now have the major organizers in custody or on the run.
