Turkish police have detained 46 al-Qaida-linked suspects in simultaneous operations launched in five provinces, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Monday.

Twenty-five people had been held in the central province of Konya, while others had been taken into custody in the western provinces of Istanbul, Izmir and Kocaeli, and in the southeastern province of Mardin, Anatolia said.

The police raids were assisted by special forces in the early morning operation but no further details were immediately available. Last December, police detained a lawyer who said he was the leader of al-Qaida in Turkey and seized bomb-making material.

In November 2003, 63 people were killed and hundreds of others injured in four al-Qaida-linked suicide bombings targeting two synagogues, the British consulate and a British-owned bank in Turkey's largest city of Istanbul.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2007)