Suspect in Turkey Bombings Says Al Qaeda Financed Attacks

ANKARA, Turkey — A man charged with helping organize last month’s suicide bombings in Istanbul has said that Al Qaeda gave militants $150,000 to carry out the attacks, local media reported Saturday.

Adnan Ersoz’s confession, which newspapers said had been leaked by police sources, would be the first time a suspect in the attacks has said Al Qaeda financed the truck bombings that killed 62 people.

Ersoz, believed to be a senior member of Al Qaeda in Turkey, was charged Friday with an offense amounting to treason. Police believe that he was a link between the terrorist network and suicide bombers.

He told police that an Iranian sent him $50,000 by courier and that he later contacted Habip Aktas, the alleged head of Al Qaeda in Turkey, to get $100,000 more for the attackers, the newspapers reported.

“I followed the necessary financing for attacks, which I thought would be carried out against U.S. targets,” the newspaper Hurriyet quoted Ersoz as telling interrogators.

The bombers hit two synagogues Nov. 15 and the British Consulate and the offices of a London-based bank five days later.

In court, Ersoz denied that he’d had advance knowledge of the attacks or that he had received orders from Osama bin Laden, the Anatolian news agency reported. However, he acknowledged receiving military training in Afghanistan in 1997 and said he met with Bin Laden in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2001, the agency reported.

Authorities had said earlier that Ersoz told interrogators that he and Aktas had met with Bin Laden in Kandahar before the Sept. 11 attacks and they had decided to attack Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, used by the U.S. military. But tight security apparently made them change their target.

Ersoz was detained Monday as he entered the country at Istanbul’s airport.

Hurriyet said Turkish police had persuaded Ersoz to fly to Istanbul from Iran and surrender. Police had learned from another captured militant, Fevzi Yitiz, that Ersoz regretted his role in the attacks because most of the victims were Turkish Muslims. Yitiz and Ersoz met in Tehran after the attacks, police said.

The newspapers said Ersoz wanted to take advantage of a government amnesty that would benefit those who gave authorities information about illegal organizations.