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| Europe |
| Al-Qaeda suspects held in Turkey |
| 2008-04-02 |
| Forty-five people have been detained by Turkish police on suspicion of links to al-Qaeda and planning attacks. Local media reported that the suspects were rounded up in simultaneous operations in eight districts of Istanbul on Tuesday and were being questioned by police. A court is to decide whether they should be charged, jailed and wait for a trial or released. In January, police raided 18 locations in southeast Turkey on so-called "intelligence" that fighters linked to al-Qaeda were planning car bomb attacks. Four alleged fighters and a policeman were then killed in a gunfight, and 17 suspects were arrested. Previous arrests Al-Qaeda was also blamed for truck bombs that targeted two synagogues in Istanbul on November 15, 2003, as well as the British consulate and a British bank five days later. The attacks killed at least 63 people, and injured hundreds. Last year, seven men were jailed for life over the bombings, one of them a Syrian national who was convicted of financing the attacks. |
| Posted by:Fred |