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Turkish Government Backing of Islamic Group Arouses Scrutiny After Blasts

(Washington Post) Of the four suspects named in the bombings that traumatized Istanbul, three hailed from Bingol, about 1,000 miles away in Turkey's eastern mountains. Notably religious, each of the suspects bore the markers of Islamic militancy familiar in biographies of suicide bombers, including travel to Pakistan for "religious training." One of the three had also traveled to Saudi Arabia. Until four years ago, Turkey had tacitly encouraged Islamic extremism in this region, judging it a useful tool in a sometimes dirty war against Kurdish separatists. A brutal religious underground group known as Hizballah (not related to Hizballah in Lebanon) received guns from government arsenals, and several thousand killings widely attributed to the group were officially ignored. The three men from Bingol accused in the bombings had all been detained on suspicion of membership in Hizballah, Turkish officials said.
2003-11-24 00:00:00
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