ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Syria handed over 22 suspects to
Turkey yesterday in connection with four deadly suicide bombings in
Istanbul, the semiofficial Anatolia news agency reported.

The suspects, all Turks, reportedly fled the country after the
attacks, which targeted two synagogues in near-simultaneous
bombings Nov. 15 and the British consulate and a British bank in
twin attacks five days later. A total of 61 people were killed.

Citing a statement from paramilitary police, Anatolia said the
suspects included Hilmi Tuglaoglu, a close associate of Azat
Ekinci, a central suspect in the blasts.

News reports have named Ekinci as a key accomplice in the
synagogue bombings, saying he used fake identities and cash to buy
pickup trucks that were packed with explosives. The reports said
Ekinci had traveled to Iran, received military and explosives
training in Pakistan between 1997-99 and fought in Chechnya.

The suspects were being questioned, the statement added. There
were no details about Tuglaoglu’s alleged involvement, though
police said his wife was also brought from Syria.

The report came amid signs of progress in the investigation.

A Turkish court on Saturday charged a key suspect captured last
week with trying to overthrow Turkey’s “constitutional
order” — a crime equivalent to treason. The first major
suspect to be charged in the attacks, he is accused of having given
the order to carry out the truck bombing of the Beth Israel
synagogue.

Police identified him by his initials, Y.P., but nearly all
major Turkish newspapers said he was Yusuf Polat. The daily Radikal
said he was born in 1974 in Turkey’s southeastern province of
Malatya.

The daily Milliyet and other newspapers reported yesterday that
Polat and others confessed to belonging to a 10-man cell that was
an extension of the al-Qaida terror network. Police also had
evidence that the attackers received support domestically and from
abroad, Milliyet reported.

Newspapers reported that members of the cell, including several
of the suicide bombers, had met while training in Afghanistan, and
that Polat fought in Afghanistan.

Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler did not directly address the news
reports but said there were “resemblances to an al-Qaida
link” in the attacks.

“However, we have to obtain all the official evidence, all
the links, all the clues. It wouldn’t be right to talk about
the links without all the official evidence,” Guler said.

He added there was no evidence yet linking the attacks to the
militant Turkish Islamic group, Hezbollah, which is not linked to
the Lebanese group of the same name.

Police refused to comment on the reports. They said only that
Y.P. was arrested Tuesday at an Iranian border crossing in eastern
Agri province, and that he had gone to the Beth Israel synagogue
before the attack and ordered its start.

Turkey has long accused Iran’s government of fueling
radical Islam in Turkey and has alleged that members of an Islamic
radical group suspected in a series of killings trained in Iran and
received support from its government.

The daily Hurriyet said Y.P. was tracked down through his cell
phone records after allegedly calling a suicide bomber minutes
before the attack. The Anatolia news agency reported yesterday that
materials used to make bombs were found in a house in Istanbul that
he used.

Authorities have charged another 20 people in connection with
the blasts, but for lesser roles. All the suicide bombers were
Turks.

Guler announced yesterday that the attack against the HSBC
bank’s Istanbul headquarters was carried out by Ilyas Kuncak,
born in 1956 in the capital Ankara. Anatolia had earlier named the
bomber as Mevlut Ugur and newspapers previously named two other
suspected militants.

He also confirmed that Feridun Ugurlu carried out the attack
against the British consulate. Ugurlu is believed to have fought
with Islamic radicals in Afghanistan and Chechnya and his role had
widely been reported by Turkish newspapers.

Police have been focusing on Turkish fighters who battled in
Chechnya, Afghanistan or Bosnia in the investigation.

Western and Turkish officials say the suicide attacks bore the
hallmarks of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida and there have been
at least three claims of responsibility claiming to be from the
terror network. However, Turkish officials have said it was too
early to say for sure that al-Qaida was behind the attacks.

American counterterrorism officials said last month that several
senior al-Qaida operatives who fled to Iran after the U.S.-led war
in Afghanistan ousted the Taliban may have developed a relationship
with a secretive military unit linked to Iran’s religious
hard-liners.