Aunty Em
Well-Known Member
FUCKING BASTARDS!!!
World News
November 21, 2003
A victim is helped to safety outside the HSBC bank in Istanbul yesterday after one of the two devastating suicide bomb attacks in the city. Al-Qaeda is being blamed for the attack. Photo: Reuters
Al-Qaeda strikes at Britain
By Philip Webster, Political Editor, and Michael Evans, Defence Editor
27 killed, 400 hurt in consulate bombings
Turkish terrorists acting 'for bin Laden'
AL-QAEDA terrorists struck directly at Britain for the first time yesterday, killing its Consul-General in Istanbul and at least 26 other people in two suicide bomb attacks.
The bombers deliberately timed their attacks to coincide with the London meeting of President Bush and Tony Blair, the leaders of the worldwide War on Terror.
They mocked the massive security precautions in London by launching assaults hundreds of miles away against soft targets, the British consulate and the Turkish headquarters of the British bank HSBC. Three Britons and 10 Turks were known to have died in the blast outside the consulate. More than 400 people were injured.
Security had been stepped up at the consulate after two synagogues in the city were bombed on Saturday, killing 23 people. Most of the Turkish dead were policemen on duty.
With London teeming with thousands of anti-war demonstrators, Mr Blair and his Government were visibly shaken as al-Qaeda targeted British interests in its campaign against countries in the American-led coalition in Iraq.
The Foreign Office said that it had warnings of further terrorist attacks in Turkey and last night advised against all travel to Istanbul and other major Turkish cities. The US also warned its citizens against visiting Turkey.
The explosion occurred at 11am when a lorry bomb smashed into the consulate gate. It killed Roger Short, 58, the Consul-General, and his personal assistant who were working in a temporary office near by, because the consulate was being refurbished. Turkish police said that the bomb contained up to 250kg of explosives. Five minutes earlier, another lorry bomb had destroyed the 18-storey bank.
In London, the disaster was announced at a Cabinet meeting. Three hours later, Mr Blair and Mr Bush declared at a joint press conference that they would never flinch in the face of international terrorism.
“In the face of this terrorism there must be no holding back, no compromise, no hesitation in confronting this menace, in attacking it wherever and whenever we can and in defeating it utterly,” Mr Blair said.
“I can assure you of one thing: that when something like this happens today, our response is not to flinch or give way or concede one inch. We stand absolutely firm until this job is done, done in Iraq, done elsewhere in the world.”
The Queen said that she was shocked and expressed sympathy to “all caught up in these evil acts of terrorism”.
But the attacks will reinforce the claims of Mr Blair’s critics that the Iraq war and the policy of fighting violence with violence, repeated by Mr Bush in his keynote speech on Wednesday, has a heavy cost.
The outrage added to the terrorist toll since the attacks on September 11, 2001. There have been at least 14 attacks since. Recently they have been directed against US, Australian, Italian, Jewish and now British targets, and against pro-Western Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Last night the Government ordered new security measures, including the installation of concrete blocks, for British embassies seen as at greatest risk from terrorist attack.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, flew to Turkey with a counter-terrorist team. He told the Commons that the attacks had “every hallmark” of “al-Qaeda and its associates”. Mr Straw will have urgent discussions with Peter Westmacott, the British Ambassador in Turkey, who said there had been extra security at the missions in Ankara and Istanbul but “sadly it wasn’t enough”.
One of the first questions will be why the office of Britain’s highest representative in Istanbul was in the least secure part of the compound, over the front gate.
All British diplomatic missions abroad have been on heightened alert since last month when al-Jazeera television broadcast a taped message in which Osama bin Laden urged supporters to attack countries allied to the US.
“We reserve the right to respond at the appropriate time and place against all the countries participating in this unjust war, particularly Britain, Spain, Australia, Holland, Japan and Italy,” he said.
Since that broadcast, Italy has been targeted — 19 police and troops killed in Iraq on November 12 — and yesterday it was the turn of the British. An unidentified caller to a local news agency said that al-Qaeda and a militant group called the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders’ Front had jointly admitted the attacks. The same groups said that they were behind Saturday’s synagogue attacks.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-902686,00.html
Kudos, chcr.