'Turkey blasts linked to SE Asian attacks'

The relationship al-Qaeda has with the Turkish Islamists who are believed to have carried out the Istanbul attacks "is exactly the same" as Osama bin Laden's group has with the regional Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna told AFP. Twenty-seven people died in bombings of the British consulate and the HSBC bank in Istanbul on Thursday, and Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw blamed "terrorists based on al-Qaeda and its associates".

JI has been accused of a string of bombings across Southeast Asia, including last year's Bali blasts in Indonesia which killed 202 people -- all apparently carried out by local militants with links to al-Qaeda.

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Gunaratna, an associate professor at the Singapore-based Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, said that despite recent arrests JI's contacts with al-Qaeda remained intact through its new operational commander, Zulkarnaen.

The Afghan-trained Indonesian, whose real name is Aris Sumarsono, took over after the capture in Thailand in August of Hambali, Asia's most wanted man, Gunaratna told AFP.

Like Hambali, "he is a man who is very close to al-Qaeda."

Clive Williams, director of terrorism studies at the Australian National University, said it appeared likely that there would be "more attacks by local groups on behalf of al-Qaeda, which is to some extent constrained.

"The variety of soft targets is greater than it was, in the sense that targetting a bank as in Istanbul was I think a first."

Williams said this indicated a need for Western-linked businesses which in the past had not seen themselves as targets to now think more seriously about their security.