A court was to decide later whether they should be charged and jailed pending trial or released. In January, police raided 18 locations in southeast Turkey on intelligence that a local Al-Qaeda cell was planning car bomb attacks. Four alleged militants and a policeman were then killed in a gunfight, and 17 suspects arrested.

Nowruz, a joyful occasion marking the ending of winter and the reawakening of nature, is celebrated across a vast region from largely Kurdish areas of northern Iraq and Turkey to central Asian countries and western China. It also marks the beginning of a new calendar year in Iran, and is the biggest holiday on the calendar. Schools close down for several weeks, people buy presents and special foods, observe specific rituals and visit family and friends. This year the Iran's oil ministry has given the country's motorists, hard-pressed by petrol rationing in recent months, a special Nu Ruz gift allowing them to buy extra petrol during the holiday period, albeit at higher prices. Gumbet Bodrum Turkey.