Turkish police detains 15 on suspicion of al-Qaida links

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish police on Tuesday, Nov 22 detained 15 people on suspicion of links to the al-Qaida terror network, the state-run news agency said.

The suspects were detained in simultaneous police raids in the central Anatolian city of Konya, the Anadolu Agency said.

State-run TRT television said they were suspected al-Qaida members but gave no other details. Police would not comment.

Earlier this year, police arrested a group accused of planning to attack the U.S. Embassy and another group in the southern city of Adana, which is home to the Incirlik Air Base used by the United States to transfer noncombat supplies to Iraq and Afghanistan. Authorities have said al-Qaida planned to attack Incirlik in the past but was deterred by high security.

Turkish authorities have said dozens of radical militants have received training in the ranks of al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

An attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul in 2008 left three assailants and three policemen dead.

Homegrown Islamic militants tied to al-Qaida attacked the British Consulate, a British bank and two synagogues in Istanbul in 2003, killing 58 people, according to The Washington Post.