Turkey Fears New Homegrown Terror Threat

Aydin Kara, a Turkish man who was injured in the synagogue bombing, is helped by police officers during a ceremony in front of the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006. Relatives and friends of the bombing victims gathered near the Neve Shalom Synagogue to commemorate the 2003 suicide attack on the synagogue. The November 2003 attacks on Neve Shalom, the Beth Israel synagogues, the British Consulate and a British bank in Istanbul killed more than 60 people. Turkish officials have charged more than 70 suspected members of a Turkish al-Qaida cell in connection with those bombings. (AP Photo/Murad Sezer) (Murad Sezer - AP)

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- In a last letter to his parents before dying in a clash with American soldiers, a young Turk urged fellow Muslims to join him in Iraq to fight the U.S.-led coalition.

"Allah gave me the opportunity to defend the lands of Muslims," Ebu Bekir Yigit said in a letter published in the pro-Islamic Vakit newspaper. "My mujahedeen brothers in Iraq are doing their best in your absence."

That message, repeated on radical Islamic Web sites, suggests a trend of militants from Turkey crossing into Iraq to join the insurgency.

More than 60 Turkish militants, including several snipers, are known to be fighting in Iraq, an intelligence officer and two senior police officials in charge of anti-terrorism efforts said in interviews with The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

Yigit was killed in Anbar province this year, according to the intelligence officer and an announcement on a Web site run by Turkish militants.

His letter _ delivered to his family home in Istanbul _ was publicized two weeks ago, just ahead of this week's third anniversary of al-Qaida suicide bombings of two synagogues and attacks days later on the British consulate and the local headquarters of HSBC bank. A total of 58 people died, along with four suicide bombers.

Dozens of Turkish Jews and Muslims cried and recited prayers Wednesday as they marked the bombing anniversary in ceremonies outside the rebuilt Neve Shalom and Beth Israel synagogues. Officials, religious leaders, and relatives laid red carnations on the streets where attacks took place.

Turkish officials fear the country could again become a target even though it opposes the war in Iraq, especially if militants return home.

"Iraq is indeed a training camp _ or breeding ground _ for militants and militant groups loosely affiliated with al-Qaida, and the longer this quagmire exists, the more anti-Western and anti-secular militants it will spawn," said Dr. Peter Lehr of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Turkey _ as both a secular state and a U.S. ally _ is a target for Islamists who subscribe to al-Qaida's world view, he said.

Turkish militants and citizens of several European countries, including France and Belgium, have died in clashes and suicide bombings in Iraq. Among them was the alleged ringleader of the Istanbul bombings, Habib Akdas, who is believed to have been killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2004, according to Turkish police and his comrades. Akdas' uncle identified his body from video footage, police said.

Other Turks, including Akdas' brother, are being held at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, and were caught before they could carry out attacks, police in Istanbul said. Turkey is seeking their extradition.