ISTANBUL, 12 August 2005 — A Turkish court ordered the arrest yesterday of a suspected Syrian militant from the Al-Qaeda extremist network who said he had been plotting to attack Israeli cruise ships off Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
“I wanted to attack Israeli ships without harming Turkish civilians,” Louai Sakra, 32, shouted to reporters in Turkish as he was being escorted to court by anti-terror police.
“I had prepared a ton of explosives and I have no regrets. I was to carry out the attack last Friday.
“Allahu Akbar (God is great),” he shouted.
Four Israeli ships carrying 3,500 holidaymakers were scheduled to dock in the Mediterranean resort of Alanya last Friday, but were rerouted to Cyprus by the Israeli authorities for fear of a terrorist attack.
On Monday, Israel’s counter-terrorism services warned Israelis to avoid a strip of Turkey’s Mediterranean coast between Alanya and Kemer, in Antalya province, due to “credible intelligence” of a potential attack.
The court ordered Sakra arrested on charges of membership in an illegal organization, but his lawyer said he denied being a member of Al-Qaeda and argued that he was acting on his own.
“He said he was angry over the US occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem,” defense attorney Osman Karahan said.
The hearing was held under media blackout. It was not immediately known when Sakra’s trial would start.
Another member of Sakra’s defense team, who requested anonymity, told AFP that his client came from an influential Syrian family and had come to Turkey as a student.
Media reports said police suspect that the Syrian planned to use an inflatable boat packed with explosives to attack Israeli cruise ships in Antalya, home to some of Turkey’s most popular resorts which attract millions of foreign tourists each year.
Sakra was detained Saturday in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir in possession of false Turkish identity papers.
He is also suspected of involvement in deadly suicide attacks in Istanbul in 2003.
Another Syrian man, also suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda and identified as Hamed Obysi, was detained at the weekend and formally placed under arrest on Wednesday.
He was reportedly a go-between for Osama Bin Laden’s network and its militants in Turkey.
Suicide bombers detonated explosive-laden trucks outside two synagogues in Istanbul on Nov. 15, 2003, and the British Consulate and the British-based HSBC bank five days later, killing a total of 63 people and wounding hundreds of others.
The Turkish authorities are yet to make an official statement on the capture of the two Syrians.
The security department denied Wednesday that police had detained up to 10 people with alleged links to Al-Qaeda on suspicion that they were plotting attacks against Israeli cruise ships along the Mediterranean coast.
Media reports described Sakra as a senior Al-Qaeda member, responsible for a region including Turkey. He has undergone plastic surgery to his face to disguise his identity, the NTV news channel said.
Sakra and Obysi were detained as a result of an operation launched last week after a fire that broke out in a flat in Antalya city, rented by Middle Eastern tourists, reports said.
The security forces became suspicious by the sharp smell of chemicals which spread in the vicinity with the fire. Sakra was reportedly in the flat at the time.
NTV said the cell plotting the attacks on the Israeli ships had bought another flat in Antalya and that the police seized 875 kilograms (1,925 pounds) of plastic and chemical explosives in one of those apartments.
The operation was carried out in cooperation with Israeli and US intelligence services, the Sabah newspaper reported.
