Reuters reports:

Turkish police have detained 45 people in Istanbul for suspected links to Islamic militant group al Qaeda, state news agency Anatolian reported on Tuesday. The detainees, seized in simultaneous raids throughout Istanbul, were suspected of planning attacks, Anatolian said. Police have carried out a series of operations in recent months against people suspected of having links to al Qaeda. Five people, including a police officer, were killed in January when police raided the houses of suspected al Qaeda militants in southeast Turkey. In 2003 the group claimed responsibility for suicide bomb attacks against the British Consulate, two synagogues and an HSBC bank in Istanbul, which killed more than 60 people. (Reporting by Thomas Grove)