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Blasts Near British Offices In Istanbul, At Least
25 Killed
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The
damaged HSBC bank in Istanbul, Turkey, is seen in this image made
from television
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ISTANBUL,
November 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – At least 25 people were killed and
around 390 wounded in
explosions near British offices in Istanbul on Thursday, November 20,
six days after two similar shuddering blasts rocked two synagogues in
the city.
The
semi-official Anatolia news agency said one of the attacks occurred
near the British consulate and two near offices of the HSBC bank.
A
man left a car near the HSBC building, moments before the explosion,
Al-Jazeera correspondent said on air by the telephone.
And
security forces rule out it was a suicide bombing, he said.
He
noted that many charred bodies are at the scenes, predicting the death
toll could be larger.
Television
footages showed people running horrified in the streets, as plumes of
fire was billowing from one of the building.
“It
is a bloody scene, the same as that in the Saturday bombings,” said
the correspondent.
The
Saturday car bombs, which targeted
two synagogues in the heart of Istanbul, killed at least 23 people and
injured some 300 others.
One
of the synagogue was 100 meters far from the British consulate in the
city.
No
group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
‘Against
Government’
Analysts
did not rule out that the Thursday attacks could be against the
Turkish government’s “promoting relations with the United States
and Israel”.
Turkey
is a predominantly Muslim country, where most of the uneasy public are
against the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq and the continued
Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
“We
have thought that the attacks against the two synagogues are a message
to the Israeli government and in revenge for its aggressions against
the Palestinians, and that’s all. Now, the message is much
larger,” said Kamal El-Bayati, of the Turkish News Agency.
“This
is a campaign launched against Turkey,” Bayati told Al-Jazeera.
He
declined to determine the parties that would benefit from the
explosions shuddering the country.
“There
are a lot of key offices in the area of the Thursday explosions, which
raises the assumption that the target may not have been the British
offices,” he said.
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