Posted on 11/15/2003 3:43:21 PM PST by yonif
Israeli security officials believe that Al-Qaida or an affiliated Islamic extremist group is responsible for the car bombs that exploded at two synagogues in Istanbul on Saturday morning, which officials said killed at least 23 people and wounded at least 308.
The assessment comes despite the claim by a militant Turkish Islamic group, widely believed to be backed by Iran, that it was responsible for the blasts. The security officials are inclined to believe that Hezbollah was not behind the bombings, and some said that before Saturday they had never heard of the group that took responsibility.
Meanwhile, Israeli security officials departed Saturday for Turkey to assist investigations of the double bombings, and to issue security recommendations for Israeli and Jewish institutions in the country.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom will fly to Turkey on Sunday, where he will meet with Gul and leaders of the Istanbul Jewish community.
"An attack of this scope," a senior Israeli security official told Haaretz, "was apparently planned by a large international terror organization... We are talking about Al-Qaida, or something similar to it. Local extremists in Turkey also probably contributed to the attack."
Turkish officials also said Al-Qaida might have had a hand in the attacks. "It is clear that this is a terrorist event with international links," Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said. Turkish Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu also said that he could not rule out an Al-Qaida link to the explosions.
According to the Jewish Agency, six of those killed in the blasts - including an eight-year-old girl - and 80 of those injured have been identified as Jews. The explosions went off at around 9:30 A.M.
Among the dead are a security guard who stood in front of one of the synagogues, identified as Yoel Cohen Ulcer, 19, and a police officer. The Jewish Agency identified the Jews who were killed at the Beth Israel synagogue as Ulcer; Anet Rubinstein, 8, and her grandmother, Anna Rubinstein, 85; Beto Avraham Varol, about 45; and Yona Romano, about 55. Berta Ozdogan, 35, who Army Radio reported was in her fourth month of pregnancy, was killed at the Neve Shalom synagogue.
Turkish police said the explosive-laden vehicles used in the attacks were not driven by suicide bombers, but Gul later said he believed the attacks were the work of suicide bombers.
In a telephone call to the Anatolia news agency, a caller claiming to be from the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front said the militant group was responsible for the attacks, and promised more. The caller said "the attacks would continue in the future and the reason was that to prevent the oppression against Muslims," Anatolia said.
Police have accused the group, also known as IBDA-C, for a bombing attack which injured 10 people in downtown Istanbul on December 31, 2000. However, no one has claimed responsibility for that attack.
Images recorded by surveillance cameras positioned at the Neve Shalom synagogue show an individual parking a red car outside the synagogue and then leaving the area, Israel Radio reported. According to Turkish media, the car exploded shortly thereafter.
One explosion went off outside the Neve Shalom synagogue, the city's largest. The other severely damaged the Beth Israel synagogue in the affluent district of Sisli, 5 kilometers (3 miles) away, where members of the city's tiny Jewish community live.
Twisted metals, shattered windows and debris from partly collapsed synagogues and nearby buildings filled the streets. The scent of smoke and burned bodies filled the air.
Television footage showed medical teams carrying away several people, some with bloodied or charred faces. Private NTV television showed the twisted wreckage of a car and a huge crater in front of the Neve Shalom synagogue.
NTV television said a red car was seen parked just before the explosion in front of Neve Shalom. Police suspected that the car may have been laden with explosives, NTV said.
Sadettin Gul, an eyewitness, said, "It was like a war zone."
It was also reported that many people were sick from ammonia inhalation, possibly related to the attack.
Magen David Adom rescue service offered to send medics, blood donations, and equipment to help Turkish rescue workers and medical services.
A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Turkey said that Turkey had turned down Israel's offer to send special police forces to assist in investigating the blasts.
Shalom condemned the attacks, suggesting that the negative way in which Israel is portrayed in Europe ultimately contributes to attacks of this kind.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan vowed to avenge the attacks. "I condemn this act as an act of terror against humanity," Erdogan told reporters on an official visit to northern Cyprus.
The Neve Shalom synagogue is the most important spiritual center for Istanbul's 20,000 Jews. In 1986, gunmen, believed to be Palestinians, attacked the synagogue, killing 22 worshippers and wounding six during a Sabbath service.
In 1992, the Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah carried out a bomb attack against the same synagogue but no one was injured. Another 5,000 Jews live elsewhere in predominantly Muslim Turkey.
Jewish sites have been targeted in recent attacks blamed on militants linked to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida - notably in Casablanca, Morocco, in May and a Tunisian synagogue bombed in April 2002, that killed 20 people, mainly German tourists.
SADDAM-OSAMA LINK disclosed in 16-page memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee,/b>
As I observed on another thread, the bombings were direct attacks against Kemalism. The synagogues in Istanbul represent everything that the Islamists hate about Turkey.
An accurate and detailed analysis of the exact nature of Islamist ideology would send one third of the audience screaming from the room, about two thirds up in your face with rabid accusations of racism and ethnocentrism, and a small percentage of Turkish and Pakistani political ideologues (students of Kemal and Jinnah) making serious comments.
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