Posted on 08/09/2005 11:41:29 AM PDT by joan
AN ISRAELI cruise liner was diverted from Turkey to Larnaca port yesterday, again amid security concerns, Cypriot authorities have confirmed.
Meanwhile Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Office issued a travel warning, urging Israelis to refrain from visiting the southern coast of Turkey, between Alanya and Kemer, due to "concrete terrorist threat".
The strip includes the city of Antalya, which is very popular among Israeli tourists. The precise nature of the threat was not made known.
The Mirage 1, with 650 people on board, sailed into Larnaca early in the morning, after being ordered overnight by Israel’s Transportation Ministry to stay away from Alanya where it was headed.
Chrysis Prenzas, head of the Cyprus Ports Authority, verified that the ship changed course and that the captain asked permission to dock at Larnaca.
“It appears the diversion is related to security, following the terror alerts issued last week for the three Israeli cruisers bound for Turkey,” Prenzas said.
On Friday three Israeli-flagged cruise liners diverted to the ports of Limassol and Larnaca.
At the time Israel Radio reported that a “terror alert” prompted Israeli Transport Minister Meir Sheetrit to instruct the vessels sailing from Haifa to stay away from the Turkish port-city of Alanya.
The order to change course was issued by Sheetrit on Friday after Israeli intelligence warned of the intentions of terrorist organisations to attack Israelis in the region.
There were no other warnings of attacks on the ships. The Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service) said that concrete and specific threats of attacks on Israelis in Turkey had been received over the last few days.
The Mirage 1 had been one of the three vessels rerouted, arriving at Larnaca and heading back home to Haifa or Ashdod in Israel on Saturday. The other two, the Isis and Jasmin, docked at Limassol.
Cypriot police and the Coast Guard beefed up security both at the ports and around the coastline.
According to Cypriot security sources, the vessels were ordered to keep away from Alanya because Israeli authorities deemed the security measures there to be unsatisfactory.
Turkey is a frequent target of diverse extremist groups, the latest incident coming only yesterday, when an explosion tore through an apartment block in Istanbul on Monday, killing at least two and injuring six others.
Last week alone, two explosions in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, which is not far from Alanya, injured six people. And last month, five people were killed in a bomb blast in a mini-bus in the Aegean resort of Kusadasi in an attack blamed on Kurdish militants.
Yesterday’s blast took place in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul, killing two men who appeared to have been making something when they were blown apart from the waist down, the city's police chief said.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2005
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