Israeli authorities are reported to be blaming Hezbollah for the murder of Ehud Sadan, security chief at the Israeli Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, who was killed when his booby-trapped car exploded Saturday.
The body of the 37-year-old former police officer, the father of three children, was returned to Israel on a special flight Sunday. A brief ceremony was held at Ben-Gurion Airport before the flag-draped casket was taken to Jerusalem for a state funeral Monday.
The bomb blast was so powerful it created a 16-inch crater under the car, turned the automobile to a burnt snarl of materials and sent clothing, blood and human flesh flying over a large area.
Moreover, six other cars were damaged and windows shattered in the vicinity, an area where many foreign diplomats live.
Three Turkish people were wounded, including a 9-year-old boy, a 20-year-old taxi driver and a third person whose wounds were so extensive as to render the victim unrecognizable.
Although the Islamic Jihad Organization and the Islamic Revenge Organization both claimed credit for the Ankara assassination, Israeli officials are inclined to hold Hezbollah responsible, or a group linked to it, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported Sunday.
The motive, they say, is continuing revenge for Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Sheik Abbas Musawi and his family in southern Lebanon on Feb. 16.
FULL DIPLOMATIC TIES RESTORED
The attack took place two days after full diplomatic ties between Israel and Turkey were established. On March 5, Uri Gordon, Israel’s ambassador to Ankara, presented his credentials to Turkish President Turgut Ozal.
Turkish-Israeli relations, until now held to the consular level, were formally consecrated only after the Palestinian representative in Ankara presented his credentials, becoming, according to a report in The Turkish Daily News, “the first ambassador of the Palestinian state to Ankara.”
Turkey’s Cabinet announced in December that it was going to establish full diplomatic ties with both Israel and “Palestine.”
But the Turkish Foreign Ministry denied there was any linkage between the two ceremonies.
According to veteran journalist Sami Kohen, who is foreign affairs columnist for the Turkish daily Milliyet, the Palestinian mission had been pressing “for a long time” for recognition equal to that with Israel.
Last week, the Palestinian representative, Fouad Yaseen, attended a reception in Ankara given by Turkish Chief Rabbi David Asseo.
Yaseen said he had come to show that “the Palestinians are not hostile to Jews everywhere,” but only to “the Israelis occupying Palestinian lands.”
Credit for the Israeli diplomat’s assassination was claimed by a telephone caller to Milliyet, who said he represented the Islamic Revenge Organization. The caller said the killing was “an answer to the Israelis.”
But Israeli authorities believe Hezbollah does not consider its account with Israel settled and will attempt other acts of violence against Israelis abroad, Ha’aretz said.
This was not the first time a group calling itself Islamic Revenge took responsibility for a killing in Turkey. Two years ago, the group said it had killed Cetin Emec, a Turkish journalist who was known for taking a secular viewpoint.
SECOND ATTACK IN A WEEK
According to Ha’aretz, initial reports indicate the perpetrators had Sadan under surveillance for a long time. But despite his extensive police experience, he apparently failed to detect his watchers.
The embassy official had just dropped off his daughter at the Hilton Hotel in Ankara and driven to an open-air market before the fatal explosion occurred.
It was not determined whether the booby-trap was a time bomb quickly concealed in the car after Sadan entered the market or was concealed earlier and detonated by remote control.
The bomb was the second attack in a week in Turkey aimed at Jews. Two unidentified assailants hurled hand grenades at the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul on March 1, injuring a blind man nearby.
It is not certain if there is a connection between the two attacks. But Turkey has proven relatively convenient for Arab terrorists to operate, especially Hezbollah, which has an office in Istanbul and an infrastructure of activists throughout the country.
Lately, there has been a spate of terrorist attacks in Turkey, usually by leftist agitators or the Kurdish nationalist group PKP against Turkish targets.
Turkey’s borders are relatively easy to infiltrate, inasmuch as its frontiers abut Syria, Iraq and Iran.
Until 1986, Turkey had a relatively good record of protecting Jews from attack, although there had in the preceding 16 years been isolated but bloody attacks against Israeli targets.
In September 1986, the Neve Shalom Synagogue suffered carnage when terrorists tied to the Abu Nidal group killed 22 Sabbath worshippers, along with themselves, in a suicide attack with machine guns and grenades.
SEVERAL PREVIOUS ATTACKS
Nor was Sadan the first member of the Israeli diplomatic corps murdered in Turkey.
On May 17, 1971, leftist terrorists kidnapped the Israeli consul general in Istanbul, Ephraim Elrom-Hoffstatter, and held him hostage for the release of terrorists imprisoned in Turkey.
The Turkish authorities refused and the terrorists carried out their threat and killed Elrom-Hoffstatter, who, like Sadan, was a former police officer.
In August 1976, two Arab terrorists attacked passengers of a Tel Aviv-bound El Al plane at Istanbul’s Yasilkov Airport, killing four, including two Israelis, and wounding 24.
In 1980, the director of the Istanbul El Al office was killed.
A little more than a year ago, an Israeli diplomat in Istanbul was the target of a bazooka attack while driving his daughter to school. In that instance, the shell exploded harmlessly.
(Contributing to this report were JTA correspondent Gil Sedan in Jerusalem and Brenda Lesley Segal of the Jewish Post in Yardley. Pa., who was in Turkey last week.)
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