U.S. Embassy, Synagogue in Turkey, Said to Be Targeted in al-Qaida Plot
Turkish police said Thursday that they had
found evidence of a plot linked to Al Qaeda to bomb the United States Embassy
in Ankara, a synagogue in Istanbul and other targets, from a raid on two houses
in February, according to news reports.
The reports said the police had seized
nearly 50 pounds of plastic explosives with detonation systems attached, as
well as six laptop computers and other evidence. Twelve people were detained
during the operation — two Chechens, two Azeris and eight Turks.
The evidence was gathered during a raid on
two terrorist cells, one in Istanbul and one in Corlu, a district of Tekirdag
on the Sea of Marmara. Forensic analysis of the computers’ contents and other
documents, officials said, revealed preparations for bomb attacks on the
embassy, the private Rahmi M. Koc Museum and a synagogue in the Balat district
of Istanbul.
Photographs, floor plans and other
information were found concerning those targets and the residences and offices
of two well-known Turks.
After the police raid, the American Embassy
issued a travel warning, but it said at the time that the Turkish National
Police had not provided specific threat information about the targets.
The police in Tekirdag said they had been
monitoring a man said to belong to Al Qaeda who arrived in the city two years
ago, after receiving military training at the terrorist organization’s camps in
Afghanistan, according to CNN-Turk. That surveillance led to the February raid,
they said.
The American Embassy was the target of a
suicide bomb attack in February that killed a Turkish security guard and
severely injured a local resident. But that attack was attributed to an extreme
left-wing organization, not Islamic militants.
In 2008, three gunmen attacked security
guards outside the American diplomatic mission in Istanbul in a shootout that
left the assailants and three police officers dead.
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