Investigators look for motive in deadly attack on U.S. Consulate in Turkey
Turkish news reports say Al Qaeda is suspected in the assault, which left six dead. But there has been no claim of responsibility.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY — U.S. and Turkish investigators worked urgently Wednesday to determine the motive and affiliation of gunmen whose shootout at the U.S. Consulate here left three Turkish police officers and three assailants dead.
Turkish news reports cited police sources as saying Al Qaeda was suspected in the attack, the most serious assault on a foreign diplomatic mission in Turkey in five years. But there was no immediate confirmation of the report or claim of responsibility.
Police identified the dead assailants as Turkish nationals and later released the names of two. Turkish news media, citing investigators, said that at least two of the men were thought to have visited Afghanistan and that one was believed to have been incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But the names did not match those on a list of Turks known to have been held there.
Turkish attack: An article in Thursday's Section A about gunmen attacking the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul said the facility was moved to its current location after Al Qaeda militants attacked the British Consulate and other sites in the city in 2003. The consulate was moved that year for security reasons, but several months before the Al Qaeda strikes.
No consulate personnel were injured in the shooting, which occurred shortly before 11 a.m. in the tidy, prosperous district of Istinye, about a 20-minute drive north from the city center. The consulate had moved out of downtown for security reasons after Al Qaeda militants in 2003 attacked the British Consulate, a bank and two synagogues, killing more than 60 people.
Before that, the American Consulate, like most other foreign missions, had been near the city's main pedestrian thoroughfare, Istiklal Caddesi.
U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson told reporters in the Turkish capital, Ankara, that the attack was an "obvious act of terrorism." He praised the police response and said the United States was cooperating closely with authorities here in the investigation.
Already tight security around U.S. diplomatic installations in Turkey was stepped up after the shooting, Wilson said. Authorities were poring over footage from the consulate's surveillance cameras, trying to piece together the sequence of events.
President Abdullah Gul condemned the attack and pledged that his country would "fight against those who masterminded such acts and the mentality behind it until the end."
The U.S. and Turkey, both members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, are close allies, but polls have consistently showed that a large majority of Turks dislike the regional policies of the Bush administration. The Iraq war generated an upsurge of anti-American sentiment in Turkey.
