Turkey Arraigns al Qaeda Suspect

By MARC CHAMPION

ISTANBUL—A Turkish court on Friday arraigned an al Qaeda suspect found with software designed to help shoot down surveillance drones in Afghanistan, according to state-run newswire Anadolu Ajansi.

Police also found bomb-making materials, including hydrogen peroxide, nails and gunpowder at the house where the suspect—identified by police with his initials A.K.—was arrested in Kayseri, central Turkey, Anadolu said. Compact discs found at the house contained video footage of the suspect exploding homemade bombs in a field, according to the report.

Police found software on the 23-year-old mathematics student’s computer that he allegedly was creating to calculate angles of fire and coordinates of Heron drones in order to enable al Qaeda operatives to shoot them down in Afghanistan, Anadolu said.

A.K. was arrested with four other suspects, ages 19 to 39, in an operation that began Tuesday, according to a police officer involved with the case. All five appeared before a court in Izmir, on Turkey’s Aegean coast Friday. The court ordered A.K. into custody but released the other four on bail.

Turkish police have made several al Qaeda-related arrests this year, but Friday’s detentions were unusual for the level and nature of the evidence against A.K. that was released.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan use the Heron drones for surveillance and reconnaissance, said Maj. Michael Johnson, a spokesman for the Joint Command of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. None of the vehicles, which fly at up to 35,000 feet, have been shot down, he said.

Turkey this year also took delivery of Israeli-made Herons to help combat Kurdish insurgents on either side of its border with Iraq. There was no evidence Friday that A.K. had obtained data from within Turkey about Heron drones to develop the software.

Al Qaeda is believed to have been behind several high-profile attacks in Turkey, including four truck bombs in November 2003, which targeted the British Consulate, the Turkish headquarters of HSBC bank and two synagogues in Istanbul, killing 57 people and wounding hundreds. Three Turkish security guards were killed in a 2008 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul.

Police told Anadolu Ajansi they believed A.K. is the head of an al Qaeda cell on Turkey’s Aegean coast, where Izmir is the largest city. A spokesman for the antiterrorism unit of Izmir’s police department, which led the operation, declined to comment.

—Ayla Albarak contributed to this article.

Write to Marc Champion at [email protected]

via Turkey Arraigns al Qaeda Suspect – WSJ.com.