Turkish police have detained 46 al-Qaida-linked suspects in
simultaneous operations launched in five provinces, the
semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Monday.
Twenty-five people had been held in the central province of
Konya, while others had been taken into custody in the western
provinces of Istanbul, Izmir and Kocaeli, and in the southeastern
province of Mardin, Anatolia said.
The police raids were assisted by special forces in the early
morning operation but no further details were immediately
available. Last December, police detained a lawyer who said he was
the leader of al-Qaida in Turkey and seized bomb-making
material.
In November 2003, 63 people were killed and hundreds of others
injured in four al-Qaida-linked suicide bombings targeting two
synagogues, the British consulate and a British-owned bank in
Turkey's largest city of Istanbul.
(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2007)
