– TURKEY 2002-6

* Al-Qaeda Cell – The Turkish authorities arrested, on 02/28/2002, an Al Qaeda Cell of three members, who entered to Turkey illegally from Iran.  The detainees, a Jordanian and two Palestinians, planned to take a commercial flight from Istanbul to Tel-Aviv, Israel in order to commit a terror attack inside Israel. 

 

* Istanbul & Ankara – 4 small improvised bombs, two in Istanbul and two in Turkey’s capital Anjara, went of an hour apart, on 05/16/2004 at about 09:30, near British interests. One of the bombs exploded near the UK HSBC bank headquarters in Istanbul, which was already targeted in the Double Istanbul Attack, on 11/20/2003. The attacks were carried out just a day before the scheduled visit of UK PM Tony Blair in Turkey and were attributed to Islamic militants in Turkey.   

 

* Mohammad Yousaf is an alleged Al Qaeda militant of Turkish origin. He was captured, on 01/28/2006, in South Waziristan, Pakistan, was handed over to his home country on Monday 04/17/2006.

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* Gaziantep – Turkish police, in 04/2006, raided 6 locations in the Southern town of Gaziantep and arrested 6 militants linked to Al Qaeda, most of them foreigners. The group was long time under surveillance of the Turkish security services and was led by a Turkish national Fahed Abdurahman al-Sakmak who was travelling often to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Police confiscated forged passports and written materials.

 

* Ankara – Aslan Alpaslan, 29, shot and killed, on Wednesday 05/17/2006, in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, the Turkish Judge Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin and wounded four others jiudges while shouting “Allah who akbar” (god is the greatest). Aslan Alpaslan named himself himself “a soldier of Allah”. At least three other accomplices have since been detained later.

 

Aslan Alpaslan was apparently carrying papers that identified him as a lawyer – although it is not known if these were genuine – and made it past security guards undetected.

 

The attack is believed to have been linked to the court’s record of strictly upholding the ban on Muslim headscarves in universities and government offices.

 

 

* Arrests – The Turkish police arrested in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir, on 11/28/2006, at the start of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Turkey, 10 suspects from the Islamic militant group – the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders’ Front (IBDA-C). The group, inspired by Al Qaeda took initial responsibility on the Double Istanbul Attack, in 11/2003. The police seized written materials explosive devices and special explosive CD designed to go off when inserted to a CD player or computer. Maps of an oil refinery near the western city of Izmir were found too.

 

Police also uncovered a plan to attack the pop himself. The group was under close surveillance of the Turkish authorities for over a year and the were arrested shortly before executing their plans.  

 

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