marcos98
FULL MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2009
- Messages
- 1,429
- Reaction score
- 0
Turkey investigating claims that one of its ex-F-16 pilot is in al-Qaeda camp
Turkey looks into claims over former F-16 pilot in al-Qaeda camp
Turkish officials said on Tuesday that they have been investigating news reports suggesting that a former member of the Turkish military was among extremists operating in Pakistan.
A report posted from Islamabad by The Associated Press on Monday said dozens of Muslim militants with European citizenship are believed to be hiding out in the lawless tribal area of northwestern Pakistan. The report cited anonymous Pakistani and Western intelligence officials as saying that those militants were being trained for missions that could include terrorist attacks in European capitals.
A senior official of Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence agency [ISI] told The Associated Press that there are believed to be several dozen people with European citizenship -- many of Pakistani origin -- among the Islamic extremists operating in the lawless border area. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to talk about classified information to the media, said foreigners in the area also include Chechens, Uzbeks, Arabs and Turks, one of whom was a former F-16 pilot in the Turkish Air Force, the report said.
Diplomatic sources at the Turkish Foreign Ministry headquarters told Todays Zaman on Tuesday that they had been looking into the news reports claims. They did not elaborate further, saying they had not collected sufficient information regarding the claims.
Officials at the Pakistani Embassy in Ankara, approached by Todays Zaman, were not able to confirm or deny the authenticity of the AP report and the information regarding the Turkish pilot.
Separate news reports suggested on Monday that Germans of Turkish ethnicity were among militants killed during a US missile strike in Pakistans rugged mountain border area.
Germanys ARD public television cited unnamed sources on Tuesday as saying that four of the five Germans killed in the missile attack were of Turkish descent. The German Foreign Ministry said late on Monday that it was investigating the reports, but did not return calls seeking comment on Tuesday on the militants identities.
Although the latest claim regarding the former F-16 pilot was being investigated in Ankara, the report also raised a degree of skepticism in Ankara. Noting that there has been an increase in reports alleging Turkish links with extremist groups or countries, an official privately complained that these claims are mostly based on remarks by anonymous sources.
If there is solid information regarding this pilot, why is the intelligence official saying that information remains anonymous? asked the official.
In the last few months, amid intense arguments and debates on whether Turkey has shifted its traditional axis from the West to some new frontier, news reports suggesting the presence of ties between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and illegal organizations have begun finding considerable coverage in foreign media. The government has fiercely denied those reports each time.
Last month, the British Daily Telegraph suggested that Iran had donated $25 million to the AK Party. After the publication of the story, the AK Party denied the storys suggestions and pledged to take legal action. The AK Party asked the newspaper to remove the story from its website and publish a formal apology. However, the journalist behind the Daily Telegraph story, Con Coughlin, wrote another article soon afterwards, saying he had no intention of withdrawing his allegations.
In August, Italian daily Corriere della Sera, again citing anonymous sources, claimed that Turkey would send sophisticated weapons, rockets and guns to Syria that will end up in Lebanon, where the Iranian army would ensure the weapons are transferred to Hezbollah.
At the time, following the controversial Daily Telegraph report, AK Party Deputy Chairman Ömer Çelik said it was unusual that the story, which he described as utterly baseless, was trying to justify Israels massacre on the Mavi Marmara passenger ship, where nine Turks were killed by the Israeli military. The ship was part of a Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla organized in May by the Turkish Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH). Coughlins report claimed that Iran also donated money to the İHH.
In June, Washington had conceded that it had no hard evidence to prove any ties between the İHH and al-Qaeda. The İHH, which is not among some 45 groups listed as terrorist organizations by the US State Departments Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, vehemently denies ties to radical groups.
