TURKEY: Simultaneous bomb attacks rocked two hotels and a gas depot in Istanbul yesterday, killing a Turk and an Iranian and injuring 11, including foreign tourists at the height of the holiday season.
Two groups claimed responsibility for the early morning attacks. One said it had links to al-Qaeda and warned of more to come. Another, an unknown Kurdish group, said the attack was retaliation for Turkish operations against Kurdish guerrillas.
One hotel was occupied mainly by Iranian traders, the other in an area frequented by foreign backpackers and just a stone's throw from some of Turkey's best known tourist sights.
"The Mujahideen from the Abu Hafs (al-Masri) Brigades carried out the first in a series of operations which will be launched against European countries after they all rejected the truce offered by our sheikh (Osama Bin Laden)," the statement from the al-Qaeda-linked group said.
The same group had claimed responsibility for the devastating suicide bombings against synagogues and British targets that killed 62 people in November 2003.
A group calling itself the Kurdistan Liberation Hawks also claimed responsibility in a statement posted on Mesopotamian News Agency, which often carries statements from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
"We carried out these acts in response to recent operations in Kurdistan and the execution of Kurdish guerrillas," the statement said.
An anonymous phone call to the Pars Hotel, 10 minutes before the blast, warned that a bomb had been placed in room 305. Two of the 37 guests staying at the six -storey hotel died when the powerful bomb exploded.
The Laleli neighbourhood, where the Pars hotel is located, is mostly favoured by tourists from the Middle East and the former Eastern block. At the Star Holiday, a modest tourist hotel situated on Sultanahmet square, near Haghia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, several of the 20 guests were injured when a bomb blew up, but no fatalities were recorded. Officials at a liquid petroleum gas plant on the edge of the city, which was the target of two other blasts a short while later, were also tipped off shortly before two bombs, placed under storage tanks, went off within 30 minutes of each other, causing only material damage.
Police immediately sealed off the bomb sites and began their investigation, combing the debris for clues that could lead to the culprits. Apart from radical Islamist militants and Kurdish rebels, extreme left groups are also all among the suspects.
Revolutionary left-wing groups carried out several bomb attacks ahead of President Bush's visit and the NATO summit which took place in Istanbul in late June, including one that killed four people on a bus in Istanbul.
The PKK, which waged a 15-year war against government forces before declaring a ceasefire in 1999 after the arrest of its leader Abdullah Ocalan, announced in late May that it would resume armed operations as of June 1st.
At the time, the organisation, now divided and renamed Kongra-Gel, warned "foreign investors and tourists that with the end of the ceasefire, Turkey has become a risky country for economic investment and tourism".