ISTANBUL, Dec 3 (AFP) - Several hundred people demonstrated outside the British consulate in Istanbul Friday at the call of an Islamist movement against the presence of British troops in Iraq, after a march through the city.
The marchers, who began at a city centre mosque, carried a banner saying "Infidel imperialists out of Iraq" and hung a black flag on the wall of the consulate before dispersing.
Bulent Yildirim, head of a group calling itself the Association of Rights and Freedoms, told Anatolia news agency, "Intelligence cooperation between the United States, Britain and Turkey must be stopped. Otherwise we will organise actions at every consulate, and if necessary will assembly 50,000 or 100,000 people at the US consulate."
Protests against operations by US-led forces in neighbouring Iraq have stepped up in Turkey since the US assault against insurgents in the Iraqi city of Fallujah last month.
On November 20 last year suicide bomb attacks on the British consulate and a British bank here killed 33 people, including consul-general Roger Short and nine of his staff.
The twin attacks came just five days after suicide bombings against two Istanbul synagogues in which 25 people were killed and hundreds wounded.
The blasts were blamed on a Turkish cell of the Al-Qaeda terror network. Some 69 people were charged and are currently on trial.
12/03/2004 14:54 GMT - AFP