Second Bombings
Five days later, on November 20, as US President George W. Bush was in the United Kingdom meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair, two more truck bombs exploded. Suicide bombers detonated the vehicles at the headquarters of HSBC Bank AS and the British Consulate, killing forty people and wounding 400 others. The bombers appeared to have waited for the traffic lights in front of the HSBC headquarters to turn red to maximize the effects. Several Britons were killed in the two attacks, including the top British official in Istanbul, consul general Roger Short, while the rest of the victims were mostly Turkish Muslims (such as actor and singer Kerem Yılmazer), as in the earlier synagogue blasts. Police say that the bombers may have timed the attacks to coincide with Bush's visit to the UK.
Read more about this topic: 2003 Istanbul Bombings