TURKEY: Turkish investigators continued to dig in the ruins of the British consulate and HSBC Bank in Istanbul yesterday, as officials confirmed the arrests of an undisclosed number of suspects in the double bombing on Thursday. Twenty-seven people are known to have been killed. After the horror of Thursday people fear they face a wave of terror, reports Nicholas Birch in Istanbul.
While officials refused to confirm how many people had been arrested, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet said the number of arrests in Turkey's worst terrorism outrage had risen to seven. Hurriyet also quoted police officials saying they believed the suicide bombers had been the accomplices of two men who blew themselves up outside Istanbul synagogues a week ago today.
At least three groups or individuals allegedly linked to al-Qaeda have claimed responsibility for the attacks. One, called the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, posted a message on an Islamist website yesterday saying it had struck British targets "to let the British know that their alliance with America will only bring them economic ruin and death to their sons".
Though the claims have not been confirmed, the four bombings raised fears that al-Qaeda is targeting Turkey for its close ties with Israel and the West. British Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw, who had rushed to Istanbul, said yesterday the city may have been hit "because Turkey is a successful democracy".
The people of Istanbul, meanwhile, were still struggling to come to terms with terrorism's brutal and unprecedented interruption into their lives.
Mueyyetzade mosque, perched on a hill leading up to Istanbul's most popular shopping street, is halfway between the sites of two of the four suicide attacks.
Last night believers were due to celebrate one of the high points of the Muslim religious year, commemorating the revelation of the Koran to the Prophet. Even so, Mr Ali Gumusoglu, whose musical instrument shop is just up the road, was surprised at yesterday's turnout.
"I haven't seen as many people as this here for a long time," he said. "I guess people have come because of what happened."
"Terrorism is always the work of wicked men," said Mr Nurettin Kavakci, who stood next to him sporting the Old Testament-style beard and skull cap popular among elderly conservative Turks. "But how people calling themselves Muslims can do such a thing during the holy month of Ramadan is beyond me. That's why I'm here today, to try and work out how they could have done what they did."
"Why us," asked the headline in the popular newspaper Vatan, above a photo of a young woman being lifted from the wrecked consulate, bleeding heavily.
Such expressions of outrage and disbelief are common in this Muslim country that until now had been spared the bloody excesses of Islamic terrorism.
But, while many people had hoped last Saturday's synagogue attacks were an aberration, Thursday's repeat performance has left them fearful they are facing a wave of terror.
"My windows were smashed after Saturday's bombings, but I had them repaired and soldered on," said Mr Ertan Karatas, whose cramped carpentry workshop is in the street parallel to one of the bombed synagogues. "I just don't know any more. Every passing car could be driven by some fanatic stuffed with bombs. I'm afraid to walk in the streets.
For most of Thursday, traffic in central Istanbul was brought to a standstill when the authorities blocked off Tarlabasi Avenue, the main artery road leading in from the western suburbs.
Yesterday they opened it again, but the site of the consulate blast was still heavily guarded.
Hundreds of curious onlookers continued to throng around the red and white police cordons at the site.
Although the Istanbul stock exchange and several foreign consulates remained closed, most of the shopkeepers affected by Saturday's blasts followed HSBC's example by opening for business yesterday.
By four o'clock in the afternoon, Istiklal Street, cleaned of glass and crowded with shoppers, looked little different from any other day.
"Our Prime Minister was right to say that we will not bend our heads to terrorists," said a defiant Bulent Arikan, slightly wounded when the blast blew in the windows of his small grocer's shop in the market just next to the British consulate. "They have broken our hearts, but not our will. I hope they burn in hell."
Despite the efforts made to return Istanbul to a semblance of normality, there were visible reminders of Saturday's blasts. Outside mosques throughout the centre of the city, huge crowds gathered to pay their last respects to the first of the victims to be buried.
Weeping family members held on to the coffins of their loved ones, covered in the green colours of Muslim burial and the Turkish flags.
"If this is what religion brings with it," said onlooker Mr Sinan Celik, a telephone salesman, "then I never want to have anything to do with it again."
World View, page 15