Qaeda Claims In Synagogue Attacks

(AP)  Turkish officials investigated claims that the al Qaeda terrorist network was responsible for the car bombings that devastated two Istanbul synagogues and killed 23 people, the prime minister said early Monday.

Two Arabic-language newspapers received separate statements Sunday claiming Osama bin Laden's group was responsible for the bombings, which Turkish officials said were likely the work of suicide bombers who detonated explosives in pickup trucks.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish authorities were investigating the al Qaeda claims, and there was no way to independently confirm the authenticity of the claims.

"Our security teams, our intelligence services have to work to determine the extent of truth of the claims," Erdogan said.

Earlier, Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said the attacks were likely carried out by someone with international links, and rejected earlier claims of responsibility by a tiny Turkish Islamic militant group, saying it did not have the capacity to launch the sophisticated attacks.

"It is very likely that there is an international connection. We are not ruling out any possibility, including al Qaeda involvement," he said. Aksu told AP the bombings appeared to be suicide attacks.

Meanwhile, Turkey's news agency says police may have prevented another terrorist strike in the country.

It says authorities arrested five Kurdish militants, including two who were allegedly planning a suicide bombing at a police station. The arrests are said to be separate from the investigation into the weekend blasts in downtown Istanbul.

A Turkish intelligence official told The Associated Press that security forces had been expecting a suicide strike but said it was very difficult to prevent such an action. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity Monday, said one person was still being questioned in Istanbul over the synagogue blasts but that the person didn't appear to have ties with al Qaeda.

The intelligence official said one person was still being questioned in Istanbul over the synagogue blasts but that the person didn't appear to have ties with al Qaeda.

Turkish newspaper reports Monday said that four Turks who were questioned and released on Sunday included some who allegedly provided fake passports to three al Qaeda suspects captured in Turkey last year as they illegally entered from Iran.

Istanbul's governor, Muammer Guler, said Monday that more people had been detained in the attacks, according to private Turk NTV, but did not say when.

The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades claimed Saturday's attacks in an e-mail to the London-based paper al-Quds al Arabi, saying it had learned that Israeli intelligence agents were inside the synagogues.

It's not clear that the group exists, though it has been linked in the past to al Qaeda. A copy of its statement was obtained by The Associated Press.

The London-based weekly Al-Majalla also received an e-mailed responsibility claim that said al Qaeda carried out the Istanbul attacks, as well as the Nov. 12 car bomb attack outside the Italian police headquarters in Nasariyah, Iraq that killed 19 Italians and 14 other people.

The explosions, set off two minutes apart, devastated Neve Shalom, Istanbul's largest synagogue and symbolic center to the city's 25,000-member Jewish community, and the Beth Israel synagogue about three miles away.

At least six Jews at Beth Israel were among those killed in the blasts, which also wounded 303 people, including Jews and Muslims passers-by.

Sixty-six of the wounded remained hospitalized, with 10 in intensive care units, NTV said Monday.

Hurriyet, a Turkish daily, said the driver of one of the trucks was filmed by the security camera outside the Neve Shalom synagogues. But it quoted police officials as saying the driver's identity was still unclear.

The newspaper said that the son of that pickup truck's owner has been missing for two weeks.

Each pickup truck was packed with 880 pounds of explosives, the semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported, citing a senior police official.

Some analysts believe Saturday's attacks were meant to warn to Turkey's Islamic-rooted government against keeping close relations with Israel and the West. Turkey, a predominantly Muslim nation which has long had a secular regime, is an ally of Israel and the United States and is NATO's only Muslim member.

"Turkey is on the al Qaeda's hit list," said Sami Kohen, a commentator with Milliyet newspaper. "In their eyes, Turkey is a country that has close ties to the West. It also is in close cooperation with Israel."

Turkey's parliament agreed last month to let the government send troops to Iraq to relieve U.S. forces there, but retracted the offer in the face of strong Iraqi opposition.

Israeli intelligence and explosives experts worked with Turkish teams to investigate the bombings. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom flew to Istanbul Saturday to show solidarity with the small Jewish community in Turkey.

One of the e-mailed statements warned of further attacks and demanded that the United States release Arab prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. It also warned President Bush that attacks would be directed at the United States itself.

"There is more to come. By God the Jews of the world will regret that their (men) thought of invading the lands of Muslims," the statement said.