At least 26 people were killed and more than 450 injured in the two powerful bomb attacks against British interests in Istanbul, Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu told reporters here.

Bush, grim-faced after new blasts, says terrorists "hate freedom"

At least 15 people were killed in the suicide car bomb on the consulate and British consul general Roger Short was feared dead, according to Turkish officials.

A near simultaneous attack on British-based banking giant HSBC left at least 10 dead, according to Justice Minister Cemil Cicek.

US President George W. Bush, outraged by the massive bomb attacks that came during his state visit to Britain, stood alongside British Prime Minister Tony Blair and vowed to crush global terrorists who "hate freedom".

"They hate freedom. They hate free countries," a grim-faced Bush said at a Downing Street press conference as the death toll from the Turkish metropolis topped 26.

"The terrorists hope to intimidate. They hope to demoralize. They particularly want to intimidate free nations," he said.

"They are not going to succeed. We are united in our determination to fight this evil wherever it is found."

Blair said: "There must be no holding back, no compromise, no hesitation in confronting this menace (of terrorism), in attacking it wherever and whenever we can and in defeating it completely."

Bush was just leaving Buckingham Palace to lay a wreath at the tomb of Britain's unknown soldier at Westminster Abbey when first reports of the bombings reached London.

It overshadowed his talks with Blair, his closest ally, with whom he was going to review the way forward in Iraq as anti-war protesters prepared to descend onto the streets of London by the tens of thousands.

Copyright 2003 AFP

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