Friday, Nov 21, 2003
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By Sebnem Arsu and
International news agencies and the Turkish television network, NTV, reported that Britain's Consul-General, Roger Short, was among those killed. ``In today's attacks, there were again trucks loaded with explosives and it is highly likely that both were suicide attacks,'' the Turkish Foreign Minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, said. He said two of those killed were police officers. The Istanbul Governor's office said the toll was 27, but rescue workers said more victims could be buried in the rubble. The explosion at the consulate blew down the outer wall of the compound, sending debris crashing into the street and crushing cars, eyewitnesses said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts, but Britain's Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, said, ``I'm afraid to say it has all the hallmarks of international terrorism practiced by the Al-Qaeda.'' Mr. Straw said that three or four consulate employees did not show up for roll call after the blasts in Istanbul, which he called an ``appalling act of terrorism.'' He did not give the nationalities of the employees. The blast at the bank, located near shops, restaurants and a metro station on the busiest street of the upper middle class Levent neighbourhood, shattered windows in nearby buildings. Shocked victims rushed from the scene, their hands clamped on their wounds in an attempt to staunch the bleeding. ``There was a massive explosion, I couldn't tell what was happening,''said a banker, Cigdem Dicle, who was coated with dust. Her suit was spattered with blood. ``I was in shock. We immediately went down, everything happened in seconds.'' NTV reported that the HSBC bank closed its branches in Turkey for security reasons, and that security was tightened at American institutions. The attacks came less than a week after suicide bombings at two Jewish synagogues in Istanbul left 25 people dead, including the bombers.
Terrorists will not succeed, say Bush, Blair
The selection of British targets coincided with the visit to Britain by the U.S. President, George Bush. At a joint news conference with the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in London, Mr. Bush said that terrorists hoped to intimidate and demoralise free nations, but ``they are not going to succeed.'' Mr. Blair called the attacks a ``terrorist outrage,'' and said an ``unshakeable unity of purpose'' was required to confront terrorism side by side with the U.S. Uxval Gochez, a photographer and filmmaker working in Istanbul for The New York Times on the web, said he heard an explosion and saw a big cloud of ash and dust rising into the air above the British Consulate. ``I approached the building and people started coming out, covered in blood, debris and glass,'' he said in a telephone interview. ``There was confusion. Cars were flipped over.'' A large crater and what looked like the wreckage of a car were directly in front of the security station, just inside the compound walls, Mr. Gochez said. ``Many people with different levels of injuries were coming out of the building and making their way, assisted by other people,'' he said. CNN Turk, a local affiliate of CNN in Istanbul, quoted a witness, Mehmet Celik, as saying he saw a brown van with an open back driving toward the British consulate just before the blast. A Turkish man, Gunduz Akyurek, and his friend were unloading their car across from the Consulate when the explosion shook the Taksim neighbourhood. ``The car hit the wall of the building,'' he said in an interview. ``We were just about to rush to help whoever was inside, thinking that it was a traffic accident but we were thrown back by a huge explosion. I was in shock. I walked through people who were lying unconscious on the ground, and the car was upside down, partly destroyed.'' Rescue workers said today's attacks were similar to those at the synagogues, and that the same strong odour lingered, apparently from the explosions. Citizens crowded into hospitals to donate blood and search for relatives and friends. At Taksim Hospital, Kadir Cetinkaya sobbed over the news that his niece and her husband were killed. ``They worked at the consulate as the cleaning personnel,'' he said. ``This is not fair!'' On Wednesday, Turkish authorities named two Turks as the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks on the synagogues — at the time, the worst terrorist attack in the republic's 80-year history. The Istanbul Governor, Muammer Guler, said at a news conference that there were parallels with attacks by the Al-Qaeda. At their news conference, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair put the attacks in Turkey in the context of their efforts in Iraq. ``We will finish the job we have begun,'' Mr. Bush said, referring to Iraq. Blair, linking the response to the attacks in Turkey to strikes in Iraq and elsewhere, said: ``Our response is not to flinch, give way or concede one inch.'' — New York Times
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