ISTANBUL, 27 December 2003 — Turkey said yesterday it has “put out of action” the group behind for last month’s devastating suicide bombings in Istanbul in which dozens of people died and hundreds more were injured. “We have uncovered all the details related to the organization of the attacks,” Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler told a televised news conference.

The Turkish group responsible for the truck bombings which left 62 people dead, including the bombers, “has been put out of action and other possible attacks have been prevented,” he added.

He confirmed that the Turkish cell was linked to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda group, which along with the shadowy Turkish group known as the Islamist Great Eastern Raiders Front (IBDA-C), claimed responsibility for the bombings.

The Nov. 15 and 20 twin attacks targeted two synagogues, the British Consulate and the HSBC bank in Turkey’s largest city. Guler , who was flanked at the press conference by Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah, said the dismantled cell had no links with any other religious organization in Turkey.

He said a total of 159 people had been questioned and 35 among them charged during the investigation. Ten other suspects, including the leader of the organization, had been sent to appear before the state security court in Istanbul yesterday to be officially charged, Guler said.

The alleged leader of the group, Harun Ilhan, 32, who was detained in the central Turkish city of Konya, allegedly admitted under questioning that a foreign cruise liner visiting Turkey had also been a target. But he said that plan had been abandoned because it was too difficult to organize, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Between five and seven other suspects hunted by the authorities have fled abroad, said Guler, but he did not specify to which countries. According to Turkish newspaper Vatan, four of them are thought to be hiding in camps run by Al-Qaeda near Tikrit, the hometown of ex-dictator Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

Large quantities of explosives, electronic detonators, Kalashnikov rifles and pistols seized during the police investigation which followed the Istanbul attacks were on show at the press conference.

Guler said police had recently recovered in Istanbul about 275 kilograms of RDX military explosives, a substance much more powerful than TNT. The Istanbul attacks were carried out using bombs based on fertilizer and were packed into the back of vans, Guler said.

On Wednesday, news reports said police had seized enough material to build five truck bombs similar to those that shook Istanbul. In a document leaked to the media last week, police warned of possible new attacks during the New Year holidays, although officials later sought to play down the threat.

The memo said police had intelligence that several people from a group of militants planning a new “large scale” attack in Turkey had crossed into the country from Syria. The document, dated Dec. 22, urged security forces to be vigilant over Christmas and mentioned Western interests, particularly those of the United States and Israel, as well as the luxury Akmerkez shopping mall in Istanbul as possible targets. Guler said there was now no reason to fear further attacks by the cell, adding: “there is no need for hysteria”.

In the wake of the attacks, the United States and Britain warned against non-essential travel to NATO ally Turkey. US President George W. Bush said Turkey had become a key battle front in the “war on terror”.

The Cumhuriyet newspaper described Ilhan as the No. 2 man in the Turkish Al-Qaeda cell, saying he had admitted to organizing the attacks two years ago. The organizers had initially considered attacking a passenger ship, but changed plans due to difficulties in carrying such an attack out. The governor tried to calm fears that there could be further attacks.

“This group has definitely been prevented from carrying out another attack in the future, so there is no need for panic,” Guler said. Turkey, like many other countries including the United States, has beefed up security over the winter holiday period amid fears of further bomb attacks. Security experts say Turkey is an attractive target for militant Islamists who hate its secular political system and close links with the United States and Israel.

Meanwhile, at least five people died and several others were unaccounted for after a storm of unprecedented intensity accompanied by torrential rain lashed large parts of southern Turkey over the Christmas period, local officials said yesterday. The popular coastal tourist resort of Antalya was the focus of the devastation as bridges collapsed, fields were flooded and several houses were swept away during the atrocious weather, which lasted for three days.

“We have for the moment recorded five deaths and three missing persons,” the Mediterranean town’s mayor Bekir Kumbul told local news channel NTV. A child was among the victims, according to the Turkish Anatolia news agency.