Louai Sakka
Louai Sakka is a Syrian of turkish background, who security officials in Turkey, suspected played a role in a terrorist bombing.[1]
Early life
Sakka was the son of a wealthy factory owner in Aleppo, Syria.[1]
Alleged jihadist career
According to the Washington Post Sakka was suspected of playing a role in a plot to bomb hotels in Amman, Jordan, on December 31, 1999.[1] They reported he was the planner of 2003 truck bomb attacks that killed 57 in Istanbul in 2003; that he was a trusted associated of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and had lead foreign fighters during the battle of Fallujah; that he aided other fighters in their travels, with funding and false passports; He was captured in Antalya when a bomb exploded in his apartment on August 4, 2005.
The Washington Post reported that Turkish security officials asserted he had acknowledged that he had been constructing the bomb, which he intended to use as a suicide bomb when he guided a yacht into a cruise ship that had American GIs.[1]
Sakka was represented by Osman Karakan a Turkish lawyer sympathetic to jihadists.[2] Karakan said that Sakka had willingly acknowledged his jihadist activities, and remained committed to jihadism -- but was nevertheless refusing to sign a confession.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Karl Vick (2006-02-20). "A Bomb-Builder, 'Out of the Shadows': Syrian Linked to Al Qaeda Plots Describes Plan to Attack Cruise Ship in Turkey". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2012-08-06. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2006%2F02%2F19%2FAR2006021901336_pf.html&date=2012-08-06. "His real identity began to emerge shortly after 3 a.m. on Aug. 4, when the windows of Apt. 1703 blew out, showering the parking lot with the contents of the kitchen and bits and pieces of the massive bomb Sakka had been painstakingly assembling in the living room. Sakka, who escaped the inferno only to be arrested two days later, turned out to be a senior operative for al Qaeda and intimately linked to major terrorist plots in Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, where he had worked beside Abu Musab Zarqawi, a longtime confederate."
- ↑ Bill Roggio (2012-08-06). "Lawyer who defended suspected al Qaeda militants in Turkey killed in Aleppo". Long War Journal. http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/08/lawyer_who_defended.php. Retrieved 2012-08-06. "Karahan had defended numerous al Qaeda suspects in Turkey, most notably Loua'i Sakka, a Turkish-speaking Syrian thought to be the planner of the November 2003 truck bombings in Istanbul. Those bombings killed some 60 people in Istanbul during twin simultaneous attacks on two synagogues, an HSBC branch, and the British Consulate."
