Anti-terrorist police sought clues after two suicide bombers tried late Tuesday to force their way into a crowded masonic hall, detonating a device at the entrance and killing one of themselves and a waiter.
It marked the first such attack on the freemasons, who have included deputies, ministers, top government officials and army generals among their members.
The two attackers shot their way into a restaurant on the ground floor of the building housing the masonic lodge in the Asian part of the city after injuring a security guard.
One of the assailants then set off explosives wrapped around his body, killing himself and the waiter, according to the city governor, Muammer Guler.
The blast also wounded six people in the restaurant, one seriously, but Guler said most of the 40 people in the room were unharmed because the device went off at the entrance.
The Istanbul governor said there was no apparent connection between the event and four other attacks on synagogues and British buildings in Istanbul in November in which 63 people were killed and hundreds injured.
"We think it was organized by inexperienced activists belonging to a new Islamic organization," a police official was quoted in the Hurriyet newspaper as saying. "If the attack had been well prepared the whole building could have gone up in the air."
However, Milliyet said the type of bomb used on Tuesday was similar to those employed in the November attacks, which have been blamed on a Turkish Islamic group linked to the Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
Meanwhile, police officials were waiting to interview the surviving attacker, who had abdominal injuries and lost an arm. He was shown on Turkish television yelling, "Damn Israel, long live..." as he was wheeled into the hospital for medical treatment.
Many Jewish businessmen and intellectuals are believed to belong to Turkey's five masonic organizations. (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
