SYRIA HAND OVER TO TURKEY 22 SUSPECTED WITH ISTANBUL BLASTS

ISTANBUL 30 Nov. (IPS) Syria handed over 22 suspects Sunday to Turkish authorities in connection with four suicide bombings in Istanbul, the semi official Anatolia news agency reported.

Police identified him by his initials, Y.P., but nearly all major Turkish newspapers said he was Yusuf Polat. The daily Radikal said he was born in 1974 in Turkey's southeastern province of Malatya.

Police refused to comment on the reports. They said only that Y.P. was arrested Tuesday at an Iranian border crossing in eastern Agri province, and that he had gone to the Beth Israel synagogue before the attack and ordered its start.

Turkey has long accused Iran's government of fueling radical Islam in Turkey and has alleged that members of an Islamic radical group suspected in a series of killings trained in Iran and received support from its government.

The daily “Hurriyet” said Y.P. was tracked down through his cell phone records after allegedly calling a suicide bomber minutes before the attack. The Anatolia news agency reported Sunday that materials used to make bombs were found in a house in Istanbul that he used.

The suspects, all Turks, reportedly fled the country after the mid-November attacks in Istanbul on two Jewish synagogues, the British consulate and a leading British bank, killing 61 people and wounding more than 800 others.

The announcement came after Turkish authorities said they had arrested one key suspect as he was trying to reach neighbouring Iran, using a false identification card.

Istanbul Deputy Police Chief Halil Yilmaz said in comments on television that DNA tests had revealed the identity of the arrested suicide bomber they did not identified.

Citing a statement from paramilitary police, Anatolia said the 22 alleged terrorists handed over to Turkey by Syria included Azat Ekinci and Hilmi Tuglaoglu, both described as central figures in the attacks.

The reports said Ekinci had travelled to Iran, received military and explosives training in Pakistan between 1997-99 and fought in Chechnya.

The suspects were being questioned, the statement added. There were no details about Tuglaoglu's alleged involvement, though police said his wife was also brought from Syria.

A Turkish court on Saturday charged a key suspect captured last week with trying to overthrow Turkey's "constitutional order" — a crime equivalent to treason. The first major suspect to be charged in the attacks, he is accused of having given the order to carry out the truck bombing of the Beth Israel synagogue.

The daily “Milliyet” and other newspapers reported Sunday that Polat and others confessed to belonging to a 10-man cell that was an extension of the al-Qa’eda terror network. Police also had evidence that the attackers received support domestically and from abroad, Milliyet reported.

Newspapers, quoted by the American news agency the Associated Press reported that members of the cell, including several of the suicide bombers, had met while training in Afghanistan that Polat fought in Afghanistan.

Officials in Istanbul named on Friday Mesut Cabuk, a 29 years-old Turk as the bomber who blew himself up in the attack on Beth Israel synagogue on 15 November and Habib Aktas, also Turkish, the driver who drove a truck bomb into the building where the HSBC bank is situated.

Aktas, 27, came from Savur, a town of 7,000 people in Mardin province near the Syrian border. He had been detained in the past for suspected ties to Hizbullah, a militant group that is not connected to the Lebanon-based organization Hezbollah.

Several of the suicide bombers came from the Kurdish province of Bingol, a hotbed of both Islamist fundamentalism and the PKK, Kurdish separatist movement led by Abdollah Ocalan, who is in prison in an isolated island.

The British government has warned of further attacks in Turkey and advised its citizens not to travel to the mainly Muslim country, angering the authorities in Ankara which regretted the low level of British intelligence cooperation with the Turkish anti-terrorist services.

Mesut Cabuk and Gokhan Elaltuntas, also from Bingol, had been identified by the Police as other synagogue bombers. Both were buried last week in their hometown Bingol, newspapers reported.

A shadowy groups suspected of links to al-Qa’eda terrorist network had claimed responsibility for all the four bombings.

"It became clear that Aktas was the bomber after a blood sample taken from his father matched his", a security officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Police detained his father and two brothers, and they were taken to Istanbul for questioning, the official added, quoted by the British news agency Reuters.

Dozens of others remain in police custody in connection with the bombings, and 20 people have been charged with belonging to and aiding and abetting an illegal organization. ISTANBUL BLASTS 301103