Al-Qaeda suspect shot dead in Istanbul: report

ISTANBUL (AFP) – A suspected Al-Qaeda militant was killed and three others captured here Thursday in a shootout with the police, Turkish media quoted Istanbul governor Muammer Guler as saying.

The shootout broke out after the four suspects attempted to rob a post office in Istanbul's suburb of Sultanbeyli.

"The incident occurred during a pursuit targeting the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization," Guler told reporters, according to Anatolia news agency.

He explained that police had intelligence of a planned robbery at the post office and had already taken position at the building when the group arrived.

"When they saw the police, the members of the organization opened fire at them," Anatolia quoted the governor as saying.

"The police responded with fire and as a result one person was killed and three others captured, one of them injured," he said, adding that the investigation into the incident was continuing.

In earlier remarks carried by Anatolia, Guler described the suspects as "either robbers or suspected members of an illegal organization."

A Turkish cell of Al-Qaeda was held responsible for four suicide bombings in Istanbul in November 2003, the deadliest terrorist attacks in Turkey so far.

The suicide drivers detonated truck bombs first at two synagogues, and five days later at the British consulate and a British bank, killing a total of 63 people, including the British council, injuring hundreds and causing massive destruction.

In 2007, seven men were jailed for life over the bombings, among them a Syrian man who masterminded and financed the attacks.

In August, police arrested 11 people in the southeastern provinces of Bingol and Mus on charges that they had set up a group -- the Muslim Vengeance Brigade -- to carry out bomb attacks on behalf of Al-Qaeda in Turkey.

Prosecutors said five of them were trained and indoctrinated in Afghanistan and returned to Turkey to organize attacks.