20/11/2003 17:00 Explosions hit the Turkish headquarters of the London-based HSBC bank and the British consulate on Thursday, killing at least 26 people and wounding 390, health officials said. The blasts came days after the city was hit by two synagogue bombings.
British Consul General Roger Short was killed in the bomb attack on the British consulate, the consulate’s chaplain told CNN. The explosion reportedly occurred minutes after Short stepped in the consulate compound. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said three or four British employees from the consulate had not reported to a roll call following the blasts. A man calling the semiofficial Anatolia news agency claimed that al-Qaida and the militant Islamic Great Eastern Raiders’ Front, or IBDA-C, jointly claimed responsibility for attacks. Turkish authorities said the same groups were behind Saturday’s nearly simultaneous synagogue bombings in Istanbul, which killed 24 people. „It seems the attacks have been conducted with the same barbaric methods,” Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, who serves as government spokesman, told reporters. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told the Anatolian agency that Turkey would not bow to terror. One of the blasts went off near the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, which is next to HSBC. A consulate official said no staff members were harmed. A Jewish club and a synagogue were also near one of the blasts. Witnesses said the attackers used pickup trucks in the bombings that occurred five minutes apart, about 11 A.M. The attacks, which Turkish media reported were suicide bombings, were blamed on Al-Qaida and coincided with the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to London. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom condemned the attacks and expressed condolensces to Turkey and Britain, Israel Radio reported. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the terror in Turkey endangers the entire free world, and that no compromise can be reached with terror, according to the report. Straw described the attacks as „clearly appalling acts of terrorism” and he suggested a link to the Al-Qaida terrorist network. „I’m afraid it has all the hallmarks of international terrorism practiced by Al-Qaida,” he said in London. The first blast was at the Turkish headquarters of HSBC, the world’s second-largest bank, sheering off the facade of the 18-floor towering white building. Body parts, the burned out shells of cars and broken glass were scattered through the streets outside the bank and bloodied bystanders looked dazed as they walked past lines of ambulances. Several people helped carry the limp bodies of victims. Emergency services had difficulty reaching the sites of the attacks, and were slow in evacuating the wounded. Another bomb ripped off the wall surrounding the garden of the British consulate in the downtown Beyoglu district. Television reports initially said there were up to five blasts, but Turkish authorities later confirmed only two. Men and women wept on the street, nursing their wounds, and bodies lay amid wreckage outside the HSBC building, in the Levent district. „The damage is very extensive,” Chris Kitrinos, an English teacher, told CNN television. „Civilians are carrying people away from the scene… There is debris and bodies around.” The Istanbul stock exchange was closed after the explosions, and panicked citizens were reported to be running through the streets. The Foreign Ministry on Thursday recommended that Israelis delay trips to Istanbul. Ben-Gurion Airport reported Thursday that several Israelis got off a flight heading to Istanbul before it took off. BPI
