Turkey detains four and tightens security

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By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Police detained four suspects andpatrolled the high-walled perimeter of the U.S. consulate inIstanbul on Thursday after 3 policemen and 3 gunmen were killedin what a minister said was a suicide attack.

Busloads of police were stationed outside the mission,where the U.S. flag flew at half-mast. Security was tightenedat other diplomatic installations and police manned checkpointsacross the sprawling city to check the identity of passingmotorists.

The attack coincides with political tension in Turkey.

The governing party is fighting to avoid being banned foralleged anti-secular activities and police are investigating ashadowy far-right group suspected of plotting a military coup.

Interior Minister Besir Atalay said police had obtainedmore information on the consulate attack from the four suspectsand were taking it seriously. Three of them were seized inIstanbul.

He said more people may be detained, state-run Anatoliannews agency reported. Police were still seeking a fourth personat the scene who escaped during the gunbattle.

"The general view is that this was a suicide attack,"Atalay told reporters at Istanbul police headquarters after anofficial funeral ceremony for the three dead officers.

Turkish police were investigating whether al Qaeda wasbehind Wednesday's attacks. Newspapers reported that the gunmenwho carried it out had received weapons training inAfghanistan.

Atalay said only one gunman seemed to have travelledabroad.

There was scepticism among some security experts that alQaeda was behind the assault on the consulate, given the smallscale and amateurish nature of the attack.

DEAD POLICE MOURNED

At the official funeral ceremony at police headquarters inIstanbul, lines of police and officials said prayers in frontof the three officers' coffins, draped in Turkish flags.

"We saw once more that terror is ruthless, has no religion,faith or nationality. We condemn terrorism from wherever itcomes. We will continue the fight against terrorism to theend," Atalay said.

Turkey has seen violent attacks from a variety of groupsover the years, including far-left, Kurdish and Islamistmilitants.

The most serious were in November, 2003, when 62 peoplewere killed by Islamists who struck at two synagogues, a bankand the British consulate in Istanbul.

The U.S. consulate had already been moved to a more securelocation in Istanbul following the September 11, 2001 al Qaedaattacks in New York.

A father of one of the gunmen had spent three months inprison after being detained as part of an investigation intothe Turkish Islamist militant group Hizbullah, broadcaster CNNTurk said.

The three gunmen had lived in the same Istanbul districtand one of them had recently completed his military service.

In Turkey's eastern Igdir province, friends and relativesof one of the dead gunmen, named as Bulent Cinar, expressedshock at his involvement, Anatolian said.

"Bulent was a good boy. We were shocked when we heard whathappened. I can't understand how he could do such a thing. Hewas definitely deceived," said Erhan Karaboga, a friend of his.

(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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