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Saturday, November 15, 2003

[Update: Via Instapundit - Kris Lofgren has lots of links and pictures.]

Yahoo! News - Car Bombs Kill at Least 20 at Istanbul Synagogues

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - At least 20 people were killed and more than 250 wounded on Saturday when car bombers shattered two Istanbul synagogues as worshippers celebrated the Sabbath.

Turkish officials said al Qaeda might have had a hand in it.

"It is clear that this is a terrorist event with international links," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said as emergency services struggled to treat those caught up in the blasts, which wrecked cars and buildings over wide areas.

Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said he could not rule out a role by Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda, blamed for attacks on other Jewish targets around the world in the past 18 months.

"It was like a battlefield," said Yavuz Guler, who dashed to one of the synagogues from the nearby restaurant where he works.

"The injured were in an awful state, moaning, but unable to speak. Some were screaming, there was a lot of blood and body parts on the street," the 24-year-old said.

The attackers could have been suicide bombers or may have detonated devices in the vehicles by remote control, Aksu said.

"In both cases, vans were driven by the attackers toward their targets. We believe they contained the same kind of explosives, they are the same kind of terror attacks," he said.

Istanbul health authorities said 20 people had been killed and 257 wounded in the two attacks, which hit the central Neve Shalom synagogue and another, Beit Israel, in the Sisli district around 9:30 a.m. (0730 GMT). The Neve Shalom -- "Oasis of Peace" -- was especially busy for a bar-mitzvah coming of age ceremony.

But many of the casualties were not Jews but people passing by on the busy streets outside the heavily protected synagogues...

Related: FM sees link between Israel's image in Europe and attacks - EU expresses horror and condemnation

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom condemned the attacks Saturday at two Istanbul synagogues that killed at least 20 people and injured over 257, suggesting that the negative way in which Israel is portrayed in Europe ultimately contributes to attacks of this kind.

The harsh portrayal of Israel, he said, "encourages verbal terror, which leads to
physical terror, like that we witnessed today in Istanbul."

The Foreign Ministry released a statement calling the bomb blasts "criminal terror attacks."

"Once again, we see that terrorism is not only directed against Israel or the Jews, it is a global threat that has to be challenged and dealt with jointly by the international community," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled...

...The European Union expressed horror and condemnation after Saturday's attacks.

"The attacks close to the two synagogues are an unacceptable expression of intolerance and rejection that have to be eradicated," said a statement from Javier Solana, the EU's high representative for foreign policy.

Solana's statement expressed "horror after the two terrorist attacks that killed many innocents." He offered condolences to the Turkish government and victims' families.

France condemned the "odious" attacks that President Jacques Chirac said would only strengthen the fight against anti-Semitism and terrorism.

"France condemns with the greatest vigor the odious double attack" the Foreign Ministry said....

Fire chief: scene outside synagogue looked like a war zone

...Sabri Yalim, the head of Istanbul's fire department, told NTV that the scene outside the Neve Shalom looked like a war zone. "There is a huge pit on the ground. The houses and cars are completely destroyed, as if a huge earthquake hit the area," he said.

"There was huge panic, glasses exploding and metal pieces all over the place. There were lots of people injured," said Enver Eker, one eyewitness. "We saw someone put a head in a cardboard box."

The chief Rabbi of the Istanbul Jewish community, Isaac Haliva, who was praying with his family in the Neve Shalom synagogue at the time of the blast, said there were no words to explain the magnitude of the disaster...

Update: Martin Kramer comments.

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