US President George W. Bush today said Turkey was now a battleground in the war on global terrorism and offered US help following bombings a day earlier against British targets in Istanbul.
"Iraq's a front, Turkey's a front," Mr Bush told reporters as he toured a sports academy during a visit to British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair's home district.
He had been asked whether, in the wake of two rounds of deadly bombings in less than a week, Turkey had become a front in the war on terrorism. The blasts have also forced the United States to watch for emerging divisions in Turkish public opinion between supporters of the traditionally secular military and Turkish Prime Minister Mr Tayyip Erdogan's moderate Islamist government.
In attacks that coincided with a Mr Bush visit to Britain that was intended to showcase a US-British alliance on Turkey's neighbour Iraq, the twin bombings yesterday killed 27 people including the British consul general in Istanbul.
A statement purporting to come from a unit of Islamic militant Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network said it carried out the strikes. An Islamist website claiming responsibility on behalf of a unit of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network for the truck-bombings.
The statement purporting to come from the Abu Hafz al-Masri Brigades, which earlier claimed responsibility for bombing two synagogues in Turkey on Saturday, was headed "Operation Islamic Iron Hammer" - a mocking allusion to a US military operation against guerrillas in Iraq.
It said it had targeted British interests in Turkey to "shatter the peace of Britain . . . which battles Islam".
It was not possible to authenticate the claim, published on Islamist website Al Mujahidoun which has in the past carried statements it said came from al-Qaeda.
Seven people were being questioned this morning over the British consulate and HSBC bombings, a leading Turkish newspaper has reported.
The Hurriyet paper also identified two men as the suicide bombers who attacked the Consulate General and the bank in Istanbul yesterday, killing at least 27 people in Turkey's worst terrorist outrage.
Mr Bush called Mr Erdogan earlier today and pledged solidarity. "I told him my prayers are with him," Mr Bush said.
The president told reporters the United States and Britain both wanted to help Turkey, and the White House said Mr Bush and Mr Erdogan stood "shoulder to shoulder" against terrorism. The United States warned its citizens today to defer non-essential travel to Turkey.
Yesterday's bombings at the British consulate and the Turkish headquarters of London-based bank HSBC came five days after similar coordinated truck bomb attacks on two synagogues in Istanbul killed 25 people and wounded hundreds.
"These incidents represent a significant change from prior attacks in Turkey, which have previously involved small-scale, random bombings and small numbers of casualties," the US embassy said in a statement emailed to Americans in Turkey.