- Israeli security officials arrived in Turkey late Saturday
night and were checking the sites of the double bombings of two synagogues
Saturday morning in Istanbul, which officials said killed at least 23 people
and wounded at least 308.
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- The Israeli team will assist investigators and will also
issue security recommendations for Israeli and Jewish institutions in the
country.
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- Israeli security officials believe that Al-Qaida, or
some affiliated Islamic extremist group, was responsible for the attacks.
The security officials are inclined to believe that Hezbollah was not behind
the bombings.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom will fly to Turkey on
Sunday, where he will meet with Gul and leaders of the Istanbul Jewish
community.
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- "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."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Sadettin Gul, an eyewitness, said, "It was like
a war zone."
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- It was also reported that many people were sick from
ammonia inhalation, possibly related to the attack.
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- Magen David Adom rescue service offered to send medics,
blood donations, and equipment to help Turkish rescue workers and medical
services.
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- 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.
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- Shalom condemned the attacks, suggesting that the negative
way in which Israel is portrayed in Europe ultimately contributes to attacks
of this kind.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- http://news.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/360960.html
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