4 detained in US Consulate attack
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - July 10, 2008 Police and Turkey's intelligence agency also were investigating
whether one of the slain gunmen had any relationship with al-Qaida
when he visited Afghanistan. Police suspect the attackers had ties
to al-Qaida but so far say they have no actual proof.
Interior Minister Besir Atalay said Thursday that four people
were in custody. One of the attackers escaped in a getaway car, but
it was not immediately clear if he was among the four detained.
Erkan Kargin, one of the three attackers killed by police
outside the consulate, had traveled previously to Afghanistan,
according to a government official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Dozens of militants from Turkey have had military training in
al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and some also fought and died in
al-Qaida ranks in Iraq, Turkish officials say.
Wednesday's attack came less than five years after local Islamic
militants, loosely connected to al-Qaida, killed 58 people in four
suicide bombings against two synagogues, the British consulate and
the local headquarters of HSBC bank.
"There is nothing more sensational than attacking the U.S.
consulate for an Islamic militant," said Emin Demirel, a Turkish
terrorism expert and author of a book titled "Al-Qaida Elements in
Turkey." "However, this attack certainly lacks the sophisticated
hallmarks of al-Qaida."
Three gunmen were killed by police at the scene and a fourth
attacker used a runaway car to escape, not the usual al-Qaida
tactics of suicide bombings and mass civilian casualties.
The attack prompted Turkey to increase security at all U.S.
diplomatic missions in the country.
If Kargin's suspected relationship with al-Qaida is confirmed,
the police are likely to label the attackers as militants linked to
al-Qaida in Turkey, said Demirel, the Turkish terrorism expert.
Homegrown Islamic militants have been posing an increasing
threat to Turkey. As both a secular state and a U.S. ally, it is a
high-profile target for Islamists who subscribe to al-Qaida's world
view.
"Al-Qaida has chosen Turkey as a main target and it would not
be wrong to assume that the group would have instructed cells in
Turkey to act," said Ihsan Bal, head of terrorism studies at
Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization.
Yet he added this does not mean al-Qaida leaders are issuing
direct orders to all their Turkish adherents.
"In Turkey, not all al-Qaida cells have direct organic links
with the group in Afghanistan. There are many groups that have
taken on al-Qaida's ideology and act on their own initiative,"
said Bal.
The Hurriyet newspaper suggested Wednesday's attack could have
been done in revenge for the death of an al-Qaida militant, Abdul
Fettah, reportedly killed in Afghanistan by a U.S. bombing.
Fettah and two of the three slain consulate assailants, Kargin
and Raif Topcil, are all from the same southeastern province of
Bitlis, a Kurdish-dominated region where radical Islam has long had
a stronghold.
But police have been careful not to single out Kurds - many of
whom support an autonomy-seeking Marxist Kurdish rebel
organization, the PKK - alone for their role in radical Islamic
organizations.
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Associated Press Writer Selcan Hacaoglu contributed to this
report from Ankara.