Bin Laden proposed attacks on U.S. military base in Turkey, but ...

[ze_dscherman]

Bin Laden proposed attacks on U.S. military base in Turkey, but militants switched targets

Osama bin Laden proposed attacking a Turkish military base used by the United States, but militants stymied by tight security bombed civilian targets instead, killing Muslims and upsetting al-Qaida leaders, Turkish officials told The Associated Press.

The information came from interrogations of a top suspect in last month's deadly bombings in Istanbul that authorities believe were carried out by Turkish militants trained by al-Qaida in Afghanistan, according to the officials.

The suspect, Fevzi Yitiz, told interrogators that bin Laden approved attacks in Turkey on condition that Turks were not killed, a top intelligence source told the AP this week.

But the militants instead bombed two synagogues, a London-based bank and the British Consulate, killing 62 people, mostly Muslims.

More: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/12/17/international0447EST0454.DTL