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CNN Live Today
Terrorism in Turkey
Aired November 20, 2003 - 10:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go to breaking news out of Istanbul, Turkey, which, again, has been rocked by a pair of powerful car bombs. It is the second such attack in less than a week. This time one of the fatalities is a senior British diplomat.
We want to go right to the scene where CNN's Ahu Ozyurt is joining us right now with the very latest from there -- Ahu.
AHU OZYURT, CNN TURK REPORTER: Hi.
It's almost 10 hours and, you know, people are getting a little bit nervous about what is going on in the area, where now I'm standing is right outside of HSBC Building, which is one of the biggest banks, one of the biggest international banks in Istanbul. The attacks took place early morning time, almost simultaneously, outside the British consulate and outside the HSBC Bank.
What we know as far as the numbers are concerned is 26 dead, more than 450 people injured, severely injured around the area, in both attacks together. As you just mentioned, British consul general in Istanbul, Robert Short, has been pronounced dead after the attacks.
This is the second attack, as you just mentioned. Again, after the synagogue attacks that took place Saturday. The secretary minister said that both attacks carried some similarities, and they were going to close down on the groups that supposedly did these attacks.
Police and the court has put a ban on Turkish media about reporting the details and speculating about names, any names that might come out during about these attacks. But it looks like the attacks carry out much bigger bombs, much bigger vehicles than the synagogue bomb attacks that took place Saturday morning.
LIN: I'm wondering, what do you know about who is claiming responsibility here?
OZYURT: There's a lot of speculation about smaller Turkish groups. al Qaeda, doing it, for al Qaeda, what we say as subcontractors or operatives, but none of that has been confirmed yet. Turkish authorities do not rule out any possibility of smaller Turkish groups doing it for al Qaeda. But it looks like a very precisely planned and sleeper cell type of operation, people who've been trained in Afghanistan, who have fought in Chechnya or in Bosnia, sort of gathered together for this precise operation and might have taken the orders from al Qaeda, but it is, again, said none of this is official. Al Qaeda hasn't confirmed it. Turkish authorities try not to speculate about it, but we will know probably by the end of the day.
LIN: Ahu Ozyurt, thank you very much, from CNN Turk, reporting live there near the scene of destruction.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 20, 2003 - 10:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: We want to go to breaking news out of Istanbul, Turkey, which, again, has been rocked by a pair of powerful car bombs. It is the second such attack in less than a week. This time one of the fatalities is a senior British diplomat.
We want to go right to the scene where CNN's Ahu Ozyurt is joining us right now with the very latest from there -- Ahu.
AHU OZYURT, CNN TURK REPORTER: Hi.
It's almost 10 hours and, you know, people are getting a little bit nervous about what is going on in the area, where now I'm standing is right outside of HSBC Building, which is one of the biggest banks, one of the biggest international banks in Istanbul. The attacks took place early morning time, almost simultaneously, outside the British consulate and outside the HSBC Bank.
What we know as far as the numbers are concerned is 26 dead, more than 450 people injured, severely injured around the area, in both attacks together. As you just mentioned, British consul general in Istanbul, Robert Short, has been pronounced dead after the attacks.
This is the second attack, as you just mentioned. Again, after the synagogue attacks that took place Saturday. The secretary minister said that both attacks carried some similarities, and they were going to close down on the groups that supposedly did these attacks.
Police and the court has put a ban on Turkish media about reporting the details and speculating about names, any names that might come out during about these attacks. But it looks like the attacks carry out much bigger bombs, much bigger vehicles than the synagogue bomb attacks that took place Saturday morning.
LIN: I'm wondering, what do you know about who is claiming responsibility here?
OZYURT: There's a lot of speculation about smaller Turkish groups. al Qaeda, doing it, for al Qaeda, what we say as subcontractors or operatives, but none of that has been confirmed yet. Turkish authorities do not rule out any possibility of smaller Turkish groups doing it for al Qaeda. But it looks like a very precisely planned and sleeper cell type of operation, people who've been trained in Afghanistan, who have fought in Chechnya or in Bosnia, sort of gathered together for this precise operation and might have taken the orders from al Qaeda, but it is, again, said none of this is official. Al Qaeda hasn't confirmed it. Turkish authorities try not to speculate about it, but we will know probably by the end of the day.
LIN: Ahu Ozyurt, thank you very much, from CNN Turk, reporting live there near the scene of destruction.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
