Turkish police detain 10 Qaeda suspects

ISTANBUL (Reuters)

Turkish police have detained 10 suspected al-Qaeda militants who they believe were planning an
attack ahead of New Year, state-run Anatolian news agency reported. The agency said the suspects, eight of whom were detained in anti-terror raids in the northwestern city of Bursa on Wednesday, were expected to be brought before a court on Friday.

A further two people were detained in Istanbul and taken to Bursa, the agency said. Bursa police said in a statement that eight suspects linked to a terror group had been detained.

Turkish police often arrest suspected Islamist militants and describe them as having links to al-Qaeda, though details seldom emerge. Around 120 al Qaeda suspects were rounded up last January in raids mostly carried out in the southeast.

In October, police held five male students suspected of providing support to al-Qaeda militants fighting NATO forces in Afghanistan.

One was believed to have been designing computer programs to jam the flight controls of drone aircraft and the others were involved in fundraising for militants.

AlQaeda militants were behind bomb attacks in 2003 that killed some 60 people and wounded hundreds in Istanbul.