Turkish intelligence and security forces have arrested 38 suspected Al Qaeda terrorists, and are interrogating them on the suspicion that they were involved in carrying out a series of blasts in 2003 that killed 60. The explosions took place in two synagogues, a British bank and the British consulate in Turkey.
The Blue Eye website
Additional suspects were arrested and subsequently released, according to The Blue Eye website.
The forces discovered assorted weapons, bomb making materials and suspicious documents in the suspects' homes. The suspects reportedly confessed in the interrogations that they had been planning to carry out additional attacks against synagogues and the consulates of Israel, the United States and Britain.
The Blue Eye website
The suspects also confessed that they have been travelling to Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan for "military" training.
Turkish security forces have been particularly active against Al Qaeda suspects in the past few months. Some of the suspects admitted to robbing jewelry stores and carrying out other thefts in order to finance their activities.
Wikipedia
On November 15, 2003, two trucks carrying bombs slammed into the Bet Israel and Neve Shalom synagogues in Istanbul and exploded, devastating the synagogues and killing 27 people, most of them Turkish Muslims. Six Jews were among the dead.
The blasts injured more than 300 others.
Five days later, on November 20, as US President George W. Bush was in the United Kingdom meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair, suicide bombers detonated truck bombs at the HSBC Bank AS and the British Consulate, killing thirty people and wounding 400 others.
Several Britons were killed in the two attacks, including the top British official in Istanbul, consul general Roger Short, but most of the victims were Turkish Muslims.
Al-Qaeda later claimed responsibility for both attacks.