Turkish police arrest 5 suspected of al-Qaida ties

Group leader was part of anti-US insurgency in Afghanistan; another designed a computer program to jam flight controls of unmanned aircraft.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Turkish police arrested five students who allegedly aided al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Reuters reported on Friday.
The five men were reportedly taken to court on Friday after being arrested two days earlier.
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The group's leader had been arrested before, and was part of the insurgency against US troops in Afghanistan.
Another suspect, Reuters reported, is a 23-year-old mathematics student who reportedly made bombs and designed computer programs that jam flight controls of unmanned aircraft.
Other suspects raised money for al-Qaida.
In July, Turkish police detained 29 people suspected of links to the al-Qaida, and in January, police rounded up 120 people.
Police were been on alert against suspects since homegrown Islamic militants tied to al-Qaida carried out suicide bombings in Istanbul in 2003, killing 58 people.
In 2008, an attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the US Consulate in Istanbul left three assailants and three policemen dead.
AP contributed to this report.