Fugitive attacker reported captured in Turkey
By SUZAN FRASER and SELCAN HACAOGLU
11 July 08
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) ‘ Turkish authorities captured a gunman Thursday
wanted in the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate after rounding up
suspects who had communicated with three other assailants killed by
police, local media reports said.
Officials were investigating whether the attackers were linked to
al-Qaida. Police suspect the four gunmen had ties to the terrorist
network but said that so far they had no proof of that link.
Wednesday’s attack on the consulate in Istanbul ignited a firefight
that killed three policemen and three assailants and prompted Turkey to
increase security at all U.S. diplomatic missions in the country.
The private Dogan news agency reported that the fourth gunman, who fled
after the attack, was caught after his getaway car was found Thursday
and was being interrogated. A police officer in Istanbul confirmed the
report but would not give details. He refused to give his name because
Turkish law bars civil servants from speaking to journalists without
authorization.
Interior Minister Besir Atalay earlier said police detained four others
suspected of links to the gunmen hours after shootout. Dogan reported
one of the four was detained in a town on the Armenian border after
authorities established he had been in frequent telephone contact with
the assailants. The others were detained in Is
tanbul.
"What we need to do now is to determine their (the assailants’) points
of contact," Atalay told reporters.
Police had set up roadblocks around Istanbul as part of the search for
the fugitive gunman, who fled in a gray Ford Focus, according to
witnesses and security camera footage. Police stopped cars to check
IDs, state-run Anatolia news agency said.
In New York, the U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned the
consulate attack, calling it a "reprehensible act of terrorism" and
saying that "all acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable,
regardless of their motivation."
Turkish terrorism experts said the country is a major al-Qaida target
but the latest attack lacked the sophistication of the terror network’s
usual operations.
At least three of the four attackers were most likely Kurdish. But
police said they did not believe the attack was tied to a Kurdish
separatist movement that has been fighting for autonomy from Turkey for
more than two decades.
Erkan Kargin, one of the attackers killed, had traveled to Afghanistan,
according to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Dozens of militants
from Turkey have trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and some
fought and died in al-Qaida ranks in Iraq, Turkish officials say.
The Radikal newspaper reported that Kargin crossed into Iran in
September 2006 and returned=2
0to Turkey eight months later. NTV
television said he was believed to have undergone military training in
Afghanistan.
If Kargin’s suspected relationship with al-Qaida is confirmed, police
are likely to label the attackers as militants linked to al-Qaida in
Turkey, said Emin Demirel, a Turkish terrorism expert.
There are several homegrown radical Muslim groups in Turkey, but
al-Qaida’s radical brand of Islam receives little public backing in the
country, where a moderate interpretation of Islam is predominant.
However, some radical Muslims regard Turkey’s friendship with Israel,
the United States and Britain ‘ as well as efforts to join the European
Union ‘ as tantamount to treason.
In 2003, homegrown Islamic militants loosely connected to al-Qaida
killed 58 people in four suicide bombings against synagogues, the
British consulate and a bank.
"There is nothing more sensational than attacking the U.S. consulate
for an Islamic militant," said Demirel, author of a book titled
"Al-Qaida Elements in Turkey." "However, this attack certainly lacks
the sophisticated hallmarks of al-Qaida."
The blitz-style assault differed from usual al-Qaida tactics of suicide
bombings and mass civilian casualties.
"They chose one of the best protected buildings in Turkey, not because
they wanted to blew it up, but because they knew it would attract world
attention," said Ihsan Bal, head of terrorism studies at Ankara-based
Internation
al Strategic Research Organization.
The Hurriyet newspaper said the attack may have been in revenge for the
death of an al-Qaida militant, Abdul Fettah, who was reportedly killed
in Afghanistan by a U.S. bombing.
Fettah and two of the three slain consulate assailants, Kargin and Raif
Topcil, are all from the same southeastern province of Bitlis, a
Kurdish-dominated region. There is also speculation that Kargin might
have met Fettah in Afghanistan.
All three of the dead attackers lived with their families in the same
low-income Istanbul neighborhood of Kucukcekmece, Dogan reported. The
fourth attacker who was reported captured is also believed to be from
Kucukcekmece.
The family of one of the dead assailants, Bulent Cinar, said he had not
been particularly pious until he became friends with Kargin and Topcil
about a month ago.
"The boy who never prayed suddenly started to pray a month ago," Dogan
quoted his uncle Cemal Oz as saying. "He would tend chickens. He
wouldn’t kill anyone. They brainwashed him."
Topcil’s father, Muhsin, served three months in prison in 1996 for
membership in the local Kurdish Islamic militant group, Dogan said.
The attackers’ families apparently migrated from Turkey’s poor and
impoverished Kurdish-dominated southeast for a better life in Istanbul.
Associated Press writer Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara contributed to this
report.