by Nicolas Cheviron
ISTANBUL, Aug 10 (AFP) - Bomb blasts Tuesday rocked tourist hotels and a gas complex in Istanbul, killing two and injuring 11 mostly foreigners, in nearly simultaneous strikes that hit the Turkish city during peak holiday season.
The apparent terrorist attacks were claimed by an Al-Qaeda-linked group, which warned of more such attacks in Europe, though Turkish officials were looking into possible involvement by Kurdish rebels.
"The Abu Hafs (al-Masri) Brigades have carried out the first of a series of operations that will be launched in the face of European states... and the upcoming attacks will be more violent," the group said in a statement posted on an Islamist website.
The bombings raised security fears in Istanbul, nine months after deadly attacks on Jewish and British interests here killed more than 60 people.
They also came as Al-Qaeda has threatened attacks across Europe, notably in Bulgaria, Italy and Poland if the supporters of the US-led war in Iraq do not pull their troops out of the country.
"For the moment everything is pointing to a terrorist attack," Istanbul police chief Celalettin Cerrah was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency shortly after the blasts.
Two almost simultaneous explosions occurred at around 2:00 am (midnight GMT) in hotels in two tourist districts in the heart of Istanbul, Turkey`s biggest city, blowing out windows and starting fires.
A Turkish and an Iranian national, staying at the Pars Hotel in Laleli, were killed and 11 others, all but one of them foreigners, were injured.
The second targeted hotel, the Star Holiday, is located in the Sultanahmet district, near two of Istanbul`s top tourist attractions, the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia Church.
Woken by the explosions, half-dressed guests were seen running out from one of the hotels carrying their suitcases.
An hour later two more bombs went off at a major liquefied gas storage site in Esenyurt, in Istanbul`s outskirts, causing damage but no casualties. A small fire was quickly put out.
"I can comment on the organization (behind the blasts) only after the laboratory examination of the explosives is completed ... No organization has been ruled out," Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu told reporters.
The minister, however, hinted that the blasts might have been caused by Kurdish rebels following a crackdown on the group.
Aksu said the Istanbul police recently arrested four suspected militants from the former Kurdistan Workers` Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody 15-year campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey.
The PKK, now known as KONGRA-GEL, ended a five-year unilateral ceasefire with Ankara on June 1.
Security fears have haunted Turkey since November when suicide bombers with suspected connections to Al-Qaeda detonated explosives-laden trucks at two synagogues, the British consulate and the British-based HSBC bank in Istanbul, killing 63 people in attacks six days apart.
In March, two suicide bombers, also accused of being linked to Al-Qaeda, attacked a masonic lodge in Istanbul. One of the assailants and a second person were killed.
The Abu Hafs group claimed responsibility for the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, which killed 191 people, as well as the bombings of the British interests in Istanbul.
Abu Hafs al-Masri headed Al-Qaeda military operations until he was killed in the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.