DATE=1/19/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=TURKEY / HIZBOLLAH (L-O)
NUMBER=2-258218
BYLINE=AMBERIN ZAMAN
DATELINE=ANKARA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Turkish police have found the bodies of 10
missing businessmen who were believed to have been
kidnapped by an armed Islamic radical group known as
the Hizbollah. Amberin Zaman in Ankara reports the
discovery in an Istanbul house follows a shootout one-
day earlier between Istanbul police and Hizbollah
militants.
TEXT: During the nearly five-hour shootout, Istanbul
police shot dead Huseyin Velioglu the leader of the
most deadly faction of the armed Islamic group known
as Hizbollah. Two other militants were captured in
the operation that security officials described as the
most crippling blow yet to the organization.
Acting on a tip from the captured militants, Istanbul
police raided a slum dwelling on the Asian side of the
city where they discovered 10-naked bodies with their
hands tied behind their back.
Reports say it seems likely the decomposed bodies are
those of several Kurdish businessmen with links to a
moderate Islamic brotherhood known as the Nurcus. The
businessmen had mysteriously disappeared during the
past few months. There were widespread reports they
had been kidnapped by Hizbollah for refusing to give
them money. But these reports have not been
confirmed.
Elsewhere, Turkish authorities captured nine Hizbollah
militants, including the group's Ankara leader, during
separate raids in the capital and in the southern
provinces of Adiyaman and Gazaiantep.
Little is known about Hizbollah. But officials say
the group has no known links with a Lebanese
organization with the same name. The Turkish media
has widely reported charges that Turkish security
forces used Hizbollah members in the early 1990's to
kill hundreds of Kurdish dissidents.
Turkish security officials deny the charges and say
Hizbollah is being trained and financed by Iran to
subvert Turkey's secular government. They say
Wednesday's raids revealed evidence that link the
group to the murder of a prominent pro-secular writer
last year. (SIGNED)
NEB/AZ/JWH/RAE
19-Jan-2000 13:43 PM EDT (19-Jan-2000 1843 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
