Terrorism Massacre in the Synagogue

By EDWARD W. DESMOND

In a poor neighborhood not far from Istanbul's Galata Tower, the small group of worshipers assembled for the 8 a.m. Sabbath service last Saturday at Neve Shalom, the ancient city's largest synagogue. A little more than an hour into prayers in the temple's cool, newly white-washed interior, the reader began reciting the verses of Deuteronomy 16. Among the lines is the well-known biblical injunction "Justice, justice shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live." ;

Suddenly the pious atmosphere was shattered. Two young men who had been loitering outside, posing as tourists, pulled out Polish-made submachine guns and shot the custodian at the gate. Shouting in Arabic, they burst into the sanctuary, dropped an iron bar across the door to block it and, standing ten yards apart, began strafing the congregation. Shopkeepers nearby, just opening their stores or stalls for business, listened in horror to the rattle of gunfire and the screams of the dying. "I heard gunshots," said one bystander. "Then I saw a young man with injured feet come out yelling."

Just as the killers were fleeing the gruesome scene, police arrived, forcing them back inside. Then, either by mistake or by suicidal design, a bomb or grenades carried by one of the terrorists exploded inside the synagogue, killing both of them and dismembering nearly everyone inside. Said Avram Albohayre, general secretary of the synagogue's foundation: "Pieces of the bodies are all over the place. It is barbaric." The bloody toll in the congregation: 22 worshipers dead, reportedly including seven rabbis.

In the smoke and confusion that followed, Turkish officials initially believed two or three other terrorists escaped. Police immediately launched a manhunt around the city for them. Authorities tightened security at the city's gates, and Arab students were detained for questioning in Istanbul and Ankara, the capital. Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal convened an emergency Cabinet meeting in Ankara to review the situation and then dispatched Interior Minister Yildirim Akbulut to oversee the investigation in Istanbul. But after extensive searches, police said they believed only two terrorists were involved, and both had died in the attack.

Although Turkey's population is more than 98% Muslim, the government has a secular constitution, and religious freedom is respected throughout the country. In addition, Islamic practice forbids an attack on anyone at worship, even a non-Muslim enemy. Remarking on that prohibition, Ozal told reporters, "It is inconceivable to do this to people who come together to pray." Turkish police had reportedly not given the synagogue any special protection because no house of worship in the country had ever been assaulted.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the massacre. In Beirut, an anonymous caller claiming to represent Islamic Resistance, a code name for groups linked to the pro-Iranian Hizballah (Party of God), told a Western news agency that "one of our groups operating in Istanbul carried out the suicide attack." The caller said Islamic Resistance, which has claimed responsibility for attacks on Israeli occupation forces in southern Lebanon, was retaliating for the "aggressions committed by gangs of the Israeli military against our people in the south (of Lebanon), especially near the village of Zibqin." The day before the Istanbul attack, Israeli troops raided a guerrilla camp in southern Lebanon, about four miles from the Israeli border. One Israeli soldier was killed, and four guerrillas were captured. "We are warning Israel," said the caller. "From now on we will retaliate for every Israeli action. We will take Israeli children all over the world as our targets."

Meanwhile, some Turkish officials were reported to have said the gunmen who launched the attack were members of Islamic Jihad, another pro-Iranian group, which is holding American and French hostages in Beirut. And in Nicosia, Cyprus, a previously unknown group calling itself the Palestinian Revenge Organization also claimed responsibility for the suicide mission in a call to a Western news agency. Said the woman caller: "Wait for more attacks in revenge for our martyrs."

According to some Middle East intelligence experts, the new name may be a cover for Abu Nidal's organization, Fatah Revolutionary Council. That group was responsible for murderous attacks against synagogues in Vienna in 1981 and Brussels in 1982 that killed two people and injured more than a score, as well as last December's airport massacres in Rome and Vienna, which left 19 dead and 112 wounded.

On the basis of Abu Nidal's past operations, Middle Eastern intelligence analysts suspect that he most likely masterminded the attack. His group has carried out terrorist activities around the world, while Hizballah and Islamic Jihad rarely strike outside the Middle East. In addition, it seems unlikely that Hizballah, under the name of Islamic Resistance, could have staged an attack in Turkey to revenge the Zibqin raid just hours after it happened.

In Washington and Jerusalem, the response was sharp. A U.S. State Department spokesman condemned the "cowardly attack" and said the U.S. would assist Turkey in unmasking the people who were behind it. In an interview on Israeli army radio, Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir said, "The Jewish blood spilled obliges the Jewish state to intensify the war against terror organizations in , every place and in every way." In the past, Israel has retaliated for attacks against Jewish or Israeli targets with reprisal raids against Arab targets. Last October Israeli planes bombed Palestine Liberation Organization offices in Tunisia in response to an attack on Israelis in Cyprus. And so far this year, several other air raids and numerous infantry attacks have been launched against purported guerrilla bases in Lebanon. In the wake of last week's Pan Am Flight 73 hijacking and the synagogue attack, the Middle East's spiral of reprisals seems certain to continue.

With reporting by Erik Amfitheatrof/Rome