Turkey Identifies Suicide Bomber

[joseph parikian]

From Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?t...storyID=3908350

 

 

http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/amdf416122.jpghttp://wwwi.reuters.com/images/amdf415445.jpg

 

Turkey Identifies Suicide Bomber Through DNA

Fri November 28, 2003 12:47 PM ET

 

(Page 1 of 2)

SAVUR, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish authorities said Friday DNA tests had revealed the identity of one of the suicide bombers in this month's spate of attacks in Istanbul, which killed 61 people and wounded hundreds more.

Security officials in southeast Turkey said Habib Aktas, a Turkish national long suspected of militant Islamic leanings, was the driver of a truck laden with explosives that exploded outside the Istanbul headquarters of London-based bank HSBC on Nov. 20.

 

The British consulate was also struck that day in a similar attack, and a total of 32 people were killed in the twin blasts.

 

Five days earlier, attacks on two Istanbul synagogues killed 29 people. Police have identified the synagogue bombers as Turkish nationals Mesut Cabuk and Gokhan Elaltuntas.

 

Shadowy groups with links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network have said they were responsible for all four bombings.

 

"It became clear that Aktas was the bomber after a blood sample taken from his father matched his," a security officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

 

Police detained his father and two brothers, and they were taken to Istanbul for questioning, the official said. Dozens of others remain in police custody in connection with the bombings, and 20 people have been charged with belonging to and aiding and abetting an illegal organization.

 

Six people sent to the state security court Friday were released without charge, the Anatolian news agency said.

 

LONG SUSPECTED

 

Aktas, 27, came from Savur, a town of 7,000 people in Mardin province near the Syrian border. He had been detained in the past for suspected ties to Hizbullah, a militant group that is not connected to the Lebanon-based organization Hezbollah.

 

Authorities said Aktas had moved to Istanbul, where his wife and two young children remain.

 

Aktas' marriage portrait, shown to Reuters by security officials, depicts a woman wearing an Islamic-style headscarf ......