TURKEY: Turkey's prime minister has pleaded for international help in tracking down the suspected foreign planners of Istanbul's suicide bombings.
With domestic investigations into the attacks homing in on the remote town of Bingol, Mr Tayyip Erdogan yesterday said only an international effort could bring the plot leaders to justice.
Expressing shame that the four suicide truck-bombers in the attacks on two Istanbul synagogues as well as the British consulate and a branch of HSBC bank were Turkish, Mr Erdogan said the attackers had global connections.
"Terrorism is a phenomenon which has international aspects and we must establish a joint platform to fight against it. Regarding al-Qaeda, there are no definite results at this point yet," he said.
"We have some evidence which indicates there are religious motives behind this, but is this an al- Qaeda conglomerate function or some other terrorist organisation? We are not sure at this point."
Residents in the remote south-eastern town of Bingol yesterday said security forces had seized computers believed to have been used in planning the attacks from Internet cafés.