Israeli Cruise Attack Plot Exposed

Turks Charge Suspected Al Qaeda Militant For Terror Plan

(AP)  Karahan told reporters that his client rejected accusations of membership in any organization and insisted that he was acting alone.

A police official said Sakra was planning to attack Israeli cruise ships with Zodiac speedboats packed with explosives. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because only top-level officials are allowed to speak on the record without prior authorization.

As Sakra left the courthouse, he shouted: "I was planning an attack in open seas. Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar."

Sakra faces up to five years in prison if convicted of membership in an illegal organization.

Another Syrian, identified by the semiofficial Anatolia news agency as Hamed Obysi, whom Turkish reports said was an al Qaeda courier, was also charged Wednesday with membership in a terrorist organization.

Police said Sakra is believed to have acted as a contact between al Qaeda and Turkish extremists responsible for the 2003 bombings of two synagogues, the British Consulate and a British bank in Istanbul. The bombings killed some 60 people.

Sakra also is accused of helping the masterminds of those attacks flee the country. They reportedly fled to Iraq and joined the insurgency there.

Police believe Sakra was still in contact with al Qaeda operatives planning future attacks.

Suspects tried in Turkey for the 2003 Istanbul bombings said they originally were planning to attack an Israeli cruise ship in the Mediterranean, according to a court indictment.

Police said in a statement that the two Syrians were detained following an investigation into a fire that broke out in the early hours of Aug. 4 in a house in Antalya.

Bomb squad members and police intelligence officers were brought to the area after people noticed strong chemical smells coming from the house, the statement said.

Police apparently had been watching the two Syrians before the fire and later tied them to the house and the Istanbul bombings.

Last Saturday, police stopped Obysi after he tried to bribe border police to allow him to cross into Syria, the statement said.

Sakra was detained at an airport in the southern city of Diyarbakir carrying a false identity card, it added.