ANKARA, Feb 21: A key Syrian Al Qaeda suspect allegedly told interrogators that his failed plot to attack an Israeli cruise ship was financed by Taliban chief Mullah Omar, private NTV Television reported on Tuesday.

Loa’i Mohammad Haj Bakr al-Saqa told interrogators that he received $50,000 from Mullah Omar to carry out attacks against Israeli targets in his name, but he was against attacking US targets, NTV said.

Al-Saqa was captured in Turkey in August after an alleged failed plot to attack Israeli cruise ships. He was indicted earlier this month with masterminding suicide bombings that killed 58 people in Istanbul, and Turkish prosecutors claimed that Osama bin Laden personally ordered him to carry out terror attacks in Turkey.

Al-Saqa’s lawyer, Osman Karahan, was not available for comment.

The indictment said al-Saqa had bought a yacht for about $7,000 as well as an underwater scooter to be used in that attack. Al-Saqa also bought an apartment for about $350,000 in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya for use as a safe house, it added.

Identifying himself as a guerrilla fighter, al-Saqa admitted to failed plans to make a bomb and stage an attack on Israeli tourist ships. Al-Saqa and his Syrian accomplice, Hamid Obysi, were captured after an accidental explosion forced them to flee the safe house in Antalya.

“I was going to carry out the action the next day if there was no explosion,” NTV television quoted al-Saqa as telling his interrogators. “I was thinking of attacking a Nato military ship there if I could not attack the passenger ship.”—AP