SEDGEFIELD (England), Nov 21: US President George Bush on Friday said Turkey was now a battleground in the “war on terrorism” and offered US help following bombings a day earlier against British targets in Istanbul.
“Iraq’s a front, Turkey’s a front,” Bush told reporters as he toured a sports academy during a visit to British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s home district. He had been asked whether, in the wake of two rounds of deadly bombings in less than a week, Turkey had become a front in the “war on terrorism”.
The blasts have also forced the United States to watch for emerging divisions in Turkish public opinion between supporters of the traditionally secular military and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s moderate Islamist government.
In attacks that coincided with a Bush visit to Britain that was intended to showcase a US-British alliance on Iraq, Thursday’s twin bombings killed 27 people, including the British consul general in Istanbul.
A statement purporting to come from a unit of the Al Qaeda network said it had carried out the strikes.
Mr Bush called Mr Erdogan earlier on Friday and pledged solidarity. “I told him my prayers are with him.”
The president told reporters the United States and Britain both wanted to help Turkey, and the White House said Mr Bush and Mr Erdogan stood “shoulder to shoulder” against terrorism.
The United States warned its citizens on Friday to defer non-essential travel to Turkey.
Thursday’s bombings at the British consulate and the Turkish headquarters of London-based bank HSBC came five days after similar coordinated truck bomb attacks on two synagogues in Istanbul killed 25 people and wounded hundreds.
“These incidents represent a significant change from prior attacks in Turkey, which have previously involved small-scale, random bombings and small numbers of casualties,” the US embassy said in a statement emailed to Americans in Turkey.
Britain and Australia have issued similar warnings against travelling to NATO-member Turkey, a secular Muslim nation.
A US official said Washington’s support for Turkish membership in the European Union had not changed.
VISIT ENDS: George Bush ended his visit to Britain on Friday, sharing a traditional pub lunch with Tony Blair, but fresh attacks in Iraq ensured international politics again tore up the allies’ script.
More than 1,000 police threw a security cordon around British Prime Minister Blair’s rural Sedgefield constituency in northern England.
The president drank tea with Blair, ate a meal of fish, chips and mushy peas and watched a soccer display.
As dusk fell, Bush’s helicopter lifted off at the end of a three-day visit that was accompanied by pomp, protests and devastating attacks against British targets in Turkey. He flew back to the United States from Teesside airport.
Earlier around 300 anti-war protesters stood waiting for Bush on the green near Sedgefield’s 13th century parish church, in an echo of Thursday’s mass march in London.
“To defeat terrorism, the US is creating more of the same,” said retired engineer Malcolm Jones, 58.
Bush and Blair had woken to news of more attacks on Friday.
Guerrillas fired rockets into Iraq’s Oil Ministry compound and two hotels used by foreign contractors and journalists in the latest strikes on targets linked to the US-led occupation.
Reinforcing the sense of siege, Britain’s top police officer John Stevens said London would remain on high alert for the foreseeable future — and had already faced direct threats in the British capital that his force had foiled. —Reuters