November 24, 2003	Monday	Ramazan 28, 1424

ISTANBUL, Nov 23: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan questioned on Sunday whether the massive Istanbul bombings were the work of the Al Qaeda terror network, as the city’s British community joined in solemn prayers for the dead.

“We have some evidence of religious motives,” Erdogan said in an interview with BBC television after the attacks on the British consulate and the offices of the HSBC banking group in which 28 people were killed and hundreds injured.

“Is this an Al Qaeda conglomerate ... Or is it some other terrorist organisation? We are not 100 per cent sure at this point,” said Erdogan, but he emphasised that the fight against the perpetrators had to be worldwide.

“Terrorism has an international, a global structure. The fight against it must also be global.”

Turkish imams: Muslim prayer leaders in Turkey will this week use a sermon marking the end of Ramazan to condemn terrorism and call for unity in the wake of four deadly bomb attacks in Istanbul.

Anatolian news agency said on Sunday Turkey’s religious affairs directorate had revised the planned reading for the Eid al-Fitr feast in the light of the suicide bombings which killed more than 50 people over the last week.

“Terror, violence and anarchy have no connection whatsoever with Islam,” the agency quoted the sermon as saying. “Our religion clearly outlaws any kind of anarchy, sedition, enmity, cruelty, torture, terror or violence.”

The sermon will be read by the prayer leaders, or imams, in mosques on Tuesday, the first day of Eid-ul-Fitr festival.

Australian woman: The Australian government said on Sunday in Sydney an Australian woman was killed in the recent bombings in Turkey, correcting previous information that none of its nationals were among the dead.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said 58-year-old Nazime Erkmen was working for the British consulate general in Istanbul.—AFP/Reuters