Britain’s long-held fears that it would become a target for al-Qaeda were realised yesterday when at least 27 people were killed and 450 injured in twin suicide bombings aimed at UK interests in Istanbul.
The attacks were apparently timed to overshadow President George Bush’s state visit to London. Security arrangements at British embassies and businesses abroad were last night being urgently reviewed.
At least three of the victims were Britons, including the consul general, Roger Short, and one of his staff, Lisa Hallworth.
British security forces have been predicting since September 11 2001 such an assault on America’s closest ally in the war against terrorism. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for yesterday’s attack.
Looking shocked by the scale of the devastation, Tony Blair, at a joint press conference with the US president, said he would not flinch in the face of the terrorist threat.
”What this latest terrorist outrage shows us is that this is a war — its main battleground is Iraq,” he said. ”We stand absolutely firm until this job is done — done in Iraq, done elsewhere in the world.
”If they think that when they go and kill people by these terrorist attacks, they are going to somehow weaken us or make us think, well, let’s shuffle to the back of the queue and hide away from this, they are wrong. That is not the tradition of my country and it’s not the tradition of the British people or the American people.”
Bush denounced the terrorists who ”want to intimidate and demoralise free nations. Cruelty is part of their strategy,” the president said. ”Great Britain, America and other free nations are united today in our grief, and united in our determination to fight and defeat this evil.”
Blair also faced questions about whether the attack was a result of Britain’s close alliance with the US and Bush’s presence in London.
The prime minister replied: ”What has caused the terrorist attack today in Turkey is not the president of the United States, is not the alliance between America and Britain. What is responsible for that terrorist attack is terrorism.”
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, left consultations with visiting US dignitaries and last night arrived in Istanbul where he surveyed the consulate wreckage and pronounced it ”an atrocity against all our civilisations”.
The blasts, which levelled buildings in the consulate and ripped off the facade of a highrise HSBC office block, had ”all the hallmarks of international terrorism practised by al-Qaeda”, Straw said.
The Foreign Office advised Britons not to travel to Istanbul or the country’s other major cities, including the capital Ankara.
Today’s targets were ”clearly selected because of their connection to Britain”, stated the advice.
”We have information to suggest that further attacks may be attempted.
The claim that support for the war on Iraq was counter-productive and had made Britain more vulnerable to terrorist attack was voiced by many of the anti-war protesters who marched through London yesterday.
The Stop the War Coalition said up to 200 000 people joined the protest, making it the biggest weekday demonstration held in this country. Scotland Yard put the number at 110 000.
As the president was entertained in Buckingham Palace, in Trafalgar Square a papier-mache ”statue” of Bush was dragged to the ground, sending a stark message from people opposed to the war in Iraq.
The timing of the Istanbul attacks sent a shockwave through the western intelligence and security community. Concrete blocks, to prevent suicide bombings, were being repositioned in London’s Parliament Square, though police said they were part of the security measures for Bush’s visit.
The jitters extended to Washington where the White House was briefly evacuated after an alarm about a plane breaching security. The decision was subsequently blamed on faulty radar readings.
Taken along with the attack on a compound for foreign workers in Saudi Arabia less than a fortnight ago, and Sat urday’s bombings of two synagogues in Istanbul, yesterday’s blasts mark one of the most deadly periods of al-Qaeda activity since September 11 2001. It came as the holy month of Ramadan was ending.
The damage inflicted on al-Qaeda’s training camps and lines of communication by the US invasion of Afghanistan may now have been repaired, security analysts said.
Sixteen members of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch were sent to assist the Turkish investigation. Several familyliaison officers were also sent to help friends and relatives of British victims.
The decision by al-Qaeda to strike at British interests reflects an emerging pattern within Iraq, where troops from countries that supported the invasion have increasingly been targeted. – Guardian Unlimited Â