Turkey denies holding Al-Qaeda suspects

Agence France Presse
Thursday, August 11, 2005

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s security department denied that police had detained
a group suspected of having links to the Al-Qaeda extremist network and
of plotting attacks against Israeli cruise ships in southern Turkey.
Police sources said a Syrian national was detained on suspicion of
involvement in a series of suicide bombings in Istanbul in November
2003, blamed on a local Al-Qaeda cell.

Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, earlier said 10
people had been detained in the Antalya Province, which attracts
millions of tourists each year, on suspicion of plotting attacks on
behalf of Al-Qaeda on cruise ships popular with Israeli holiday makers.

Police headquarters in Ankara denied the report, also carried by the
Turkish media.

“Recent reports in the Turkish and foreign media on the arrest in the
southern provinces of Al-Qaeda members preparing to attack foreign ships
and the seizure of C4 plastic explosives are totally false and
ill-intentioned,” the statement said.

The private news channel NTV said earlier that the detained group was
gathering information on synagogues in Turkey as well as on Israeli
ships to prepare for attacks.

It said the suspects were detained in Istanbul and Antalya.

The suspects included a Syrian national believed to have built the bombs
used to attack two synagogues, the British consulate and London-based
HSBC bank in Istanbul in November 2003, NTV said.

The Syrian national, identified only by his initials N.S., was detained
in Diyarbakir, in the southeast, and was taken to Istanbul for
questioning by anti-terror police in connection with the 2003 attacks,
officials said.

Israel’s counterterrorism unit earlier this week warned Israeli holiday
makers to avoid a strip of Turkey’s Mediterranean coast between the
resorts of Alanya and Kemer, in Antalya Province, citing credible
intelligence pointing to a potential attack.

Last week, Israeli authorities ordered four Israeli cruise ships
scheduled to dock in Alanya to change course to Cyprus for fear of a
possible attack.