Turkish police arrested 20 persons suspected to be linked with an armed wing of Al-Qaida, and seized large quantities of arms and ammunition, Anatolia news agency reported. The arrest was made at dawn Monday in the southern city of Adana.
An estimated 300 officers of anti-terror units conducted simultaneous raids on 25 locations across the city.
Weapons, ammunition and computer equipment containing suspicious documents were seized from the homes of the arrested, the agency said.
A Turkish cell of Al-Qaida was accused of the bombings in Istanbul in November 2003 of two synagogues, the British consulate and the British bank HSBC, killing 63 persons, including the British consul and injuring hundreds of others.
Seven men, including a Syrian who masterminded and financed the attacks, were sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for the bombings.
In September, the number two of Al-Qaida, Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, held out threats to Turkey, as Istanbul assumed the command of the international forces in the Kabul region for the second time, and raised the number of its soldiers deployed there by 1000 from 750.
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