CAIRO, Nov. 20 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATI...

CAIRO, Nov. 20 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING DEATH TOLL, NUMBER OF INJURED)

At least 26 population including the British consul general to Turkey were killed in at least couple massive bomb blasts that distaffed Istanbul on Thursday, CNN reported.

CNN quot diplomatic sources as saying Consul General Roger Short was killed after a car bomb explod forward a narrow street outside Britain's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city.

Another blast overturned part of the London-based HSBC bank headquarters near a shopping mall. As many as 450 the community were injured in the explosions, CNN mahometan quoted local officials as saying.

The bombings, which occurr five minutes apart at about 11 a.m., came just days after sum of two units synagogue suicide bombings in the city that killed 25

Shortly after the attack, a management office in Istanbul received a phone call from al-Qaida and a Turkish Islamic militant clump -- the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' effrontery (IBDA-C) -- claiming joint responsibility for the attack, CNN ottoman reported.

In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters there appears to have been ''five, at least, bomb blasts, which were coordinated.

''At this stage we can't say who is responsible,'' Straw told reporters, still he added the blasts bore ''all the hallmarks'' of the international terrorism of al-Qaida and associated groups

Straw said the British ambassador in Ankara had told him that ''there are three or four (British employee at the consulate general) who have not reported to the part call, and we are obviously making each effort to identify what has happened to those individuals.''

At a joint pres interview in London, U.S. President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair sentenceed the bombings.

Blair called the blasts ''the latest terrorist outrage'' while Bush, commonly on a state visit to Britain, squeeze outed sympathy for the victims.

The BBC quot Turkish control spokesman Cemil Cicek as confirming that the attacks were carried without by suicide car bombers, while Turkish Foreign Minister Abullah Gul was reported to have said Turkey would not curve to terror.

A third blast went opposite in front of the Metro City shopping mall in the Levent district of the city. Television footage showed a sight of massive devastation, including badly mangled cars and injured family being carried away.

CNN said the blast that went along near the British consulate in the downtown Beyoglu district of Istanbul damaged the consulate's surrounding wall and shattered windows. Turkish Justice Minister Jemil Cicek said three population died in the consulate blast.

The moderns network said that according to witnesses, the driver of a small brown van packed with explosives crashed the vehicle into the consulate's wall while aiming for the main gate.

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