18 Face Trial in Turkey Crackdown on Terror

Eighteen people detained in connection with last week's devastating bomb blasts in Istanbul were transferred to the city's state security court yesterday as officials underscored Turkey's determination to eradicate terrorism.

The authorities were expected to charge the men - all Turkish nationals - with aiding and abetting the attackers who drove "cars of death" into the British consulate and HSBC bank last Thursday.

The attacks left 30 dead, including the British consul, Roger Short, and his assistant, Lisa Hallworth, and more than 450 people wounded.

Turkish police using DNA tests were yesterday reported to have identified the suicide bomber behind the attack on the consulate as Feridun Ugurlu. The daily Milliyet said he had previously been named as an accomplice in similar attacks on two synagogues in Istanbul five days earlier.

To the embarrassment of the local security services, which appear to have ignored the exodus abroad in recent years of Turkish warrior volunteers, he is believed to have fought in Afghanistan and Chechnya. The jihadists are thought to have acted as intermediaries in helping al-Qaida to forge links with the local Islamist fanatics who have claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The investigators have also traced the pick-up trucks used in the attacks to a car rental company in the provincial town of Binghol, in Turkey's impoverished south-east.

As the counter-terrorism experts stepped up their investigations, the Islamic-leaning government ordered mosques across Turkey to deliver sermons on combating the terrorist scourge. The sermon will focus on the incompatibility of violence and Islam. It will be preached today, when millions begin pouring into mosques at the start of the Muslim holiday marking the end of the Ramadan month of fasting.

The order came as analysts said al-Qaida sympathisers may well have been indoctrinated in the sprawling shanty towns around Istanbul, where religious feeling runs deep.

Although regarded as the holiest holiday in the Muslim calendar, the three-day celebrations will take place in sombre mood. The terrorist attacks have cast a heavy pall over Turkey. Tour operators have reported mass cancellations. Since the bombings thousands of foreign visitors are said to have fled Istanbul and other cities, amid widespread fears of another attack on western targets in Turkey.

"Road-blocks and police are everywhere; trucks and vans are being pulled over all the time," said Diane Schafer, an American, as she strolled in Istanbul's Taksim square."

Scotland Yard, the FBI and other security officials continued to fly into Turkey and Greece yesterday to help with the manhunt for the killers. An emergency meeting has been called in Athens to deal with the security threat. The meeting was announced as the Greek government said it would deploy 10,000 soldiers at next year's Olympic games, to back up an estimated 40,000 police.