Ankara: Turkish police on Tuesday detained 15
people on suspicion of links to the al Qaeda terror network,
the state-run news agency said.
The suspects were detained in simultaneous police raids in
the central Anatolian city of Konya, the Anadolu Agency said.
State-run TRT television said they were suspected al Qaeda
members but gave no other details. Police would not comment.
Earlier this year, police arrested a group accused of
planning to attack the US Embassy and another group in the
southern city of Adana, which is home to the Incirlik Air Base
used by the United States to transfer noncombat supplies to
Iraq and Afghanistan. Authorities have said al Qaeda planned
to attack Incirlik in the past but was deterred by high
security.
Turkish authorities have said dozens of radical militants
have received training in the ranks of al Qaeda in
Afghanistan.
An attack blamed on al Qaeda-affiliated militants outside
the US Consulate in Istanbul in 2008 left three assailants
and three policemen dead.
Homegrown Islamic militants tied to al Qaeda attacked the
British Consulate, a British bank and two synagogues in
Istanbul in 2003, killing 58 people.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 22:05