Two small bombs exploded in front of branches of the British HSBC Bank in Turkey yesterday and a third blast hit a Turkish-American Association in the capital Ankara. The Anatolian news agency said yesterday's explosions did not cause any injuries. A percussion bomb, which creates a loud blast but usually little damage, exploded in front of one HSBC branch in Istanbul, the largest Turkish city, smashing the windows. Anatolian said there was a similar blast next to an HSBC branch in the southern city of Adana at around 9.15pm, shattering the windows of nearby buildings and cars. The third explosion, caused by a similar device, was in the garden of a Turkish-American Association in Ankara, damaging the building and a neighbouring building belonging to the Agriculture Ministry. No-one claimed immediate responsibility for the blasts. However, Islamist militants, Kurdish separatists and leftist guerrillas have all carried out bomb attacks in Turkish cities.
In another development in the war against terror, an al Qaeda agent who helped plan the September 11 attacks has met leaders of a Salvadorean crime syndicate which controls the smuggling of illegal immigrants across the Mexican border into the US. The CIA fears Adnan el Shukrijumah, 29, a Yemeni with a £3m bounty on his head, is negotiating a deal to infiltrate terrorist network members into American cities to stage attacks in the run-up to the presidential elections in November. El Shukrijumah met Mara Salvatrucha gang leaders in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, where security forces are on alert for al Qaeda operations against British and US embassies. Mara Salvatrucha runs a base in Matamoros, Mexico, and controls street gangs in Los Angeles, Washington and New York. El Shukijumah was identified in 2001 and from interrogation of captives at Guantanamo Bay as a key "fixer" in hijacking the aircraft used on September 11. |