The latest terrorist bomb attacks have shaken Istanbul, but not Turkey's resolve to resist the demands of those behind them. Nor should they deflect the United States from its purpose in Iraq: to rebuild and strengthen it with democratic institutions and restore its independence.

The latest terrorist bomb attacks have shaken Istanbul, but not Turkey's resolve to resist the demands of those behind them. Nor should they deflect the United States from its purpose in Iraq: to rebuild and strengthen it with democratic institutions and restore its independence.

Yet, like all terrorist attacks, these have the power to shock and confuse. There is no denying their symbolic impact. For the first time since September 11, 2001, specifically British targets have been hit by terrorists apparently directed or influenced by al-Qaeda.

The attacks, a few minutes apart, struck at British Government and commercial interests, the consulate general and the offices of the British banking giant HSBC. Naturally that has caused an immediate review of security at British diplomatic missions and at the offices of the extensive British commercial interests around the world. While there has never been an al-Qaeda attack in Britain, the bombings in Istanbul create an immediate sense of vulnerability.

They are bound to have a similar effect on Australians' sense of security, not least because of the threats made in the wake of the similar car bomb attacks on two synagogues in Istanbul last Saturday. In a message from a group linked to al-Qaeda, the perpetrators of those outrages addressed "the criminal Bush and his Arab and Western hangers-on - in particular Britain, Italy, Australia and Japan" and threatened further attacks by the "cars of death".

It is possible that Thursday's attacks were precipitated by the heat Turkish police have applied in their search for the perpetrators of the synagogue attacks. More likely, Thursday's attacks were timed to coincide with the state visit of the US President, George Bush, to London.

At a joint press conference with Mr Bush, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said: "What this latest outrage shows us is that this is war. Its main battleground is in Iraq." That is true, especially in the sense that it is vital - if the United States and its allies are to defeat the terrorists by example - to show that a modern, democratic and free Iraq is possible.

Unfortunately, these attacks also show that in the so-called war on terrorism there are other battlegrounds. They are many, and are chosen by an enemy with an endless supplies of recruits, who emerge at the moment when they are ready to murder and die in the process.

Australia has tasted the horror of this kind of warfare, in Bali. Now, as then, the response is the same. The methods of terrorism are foul and the killing of innocents always inexcusable. The demands made by terrorists must never be acceded to. The threat of terrorism must be met by the utmost vigilance against all possible attacks.

At the same time, the surest answer to terrorism is the removal of the causes of the grievances and the hatreds on which it feeds. In that sense the war in Iraq - to establish a free, strong and independent country - is indeed the main battleground. Unfortunately, there are many more, and this war will be very long.

The country is Muslim and also a secular democracy, so al-Qaeda hates it.

A local radical Islamic group has claimed responsibility for the latest terrorist outrage in Istanbul, in which suicide bombings of the British consulate and a London-based bank killed at least 27 people and wounded more than 400. The attacks, like last weekend's suicide bombings of two syn_agogues in the city, which killed 23 people, bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda and its local affiliates. This was not only because of the bombers' belief that they would find martyrdom in dying while shedding the blood of others, nor even because the choice of targets reflected alignments in the Bush Administration's war against terr_or, and in the I_sraeli-Palestinian conflict - Britain and Turkey are US allies, and Turkey is Israel's sole ally in the Islamic world. It was also because the Istanbul bombings, like the al-Qaeda attacks earlier this month in the Saud_i capital, Riyadh, are not just part of a war being waged against the West.

Al-Qaeda's founder, Osama bin Laden, has presented himself as the leader of a movement aimed at restoring st_ict Islamic practice, and, as part of that goal, overthrowing regimes deemed to have deviated from it or, worst of all, to have c_ompromised with the secular West. That makes the corrupt House of Saud an obvious t_rget; but for al-Qaeda, Turkey is a far greater one.

Bin Laden has made several speeches tracing what he believes to be the pernicious inroads of Western thought to the foundation of the modern Turkish republic in the aftermath of the First World War. Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the state, pursued a program of aggressive secularisation, and despite continuing tensions between_ mo_dernisers and Islamists, Turkey has remained faithful to his ideals. In the past 80 years it has had recurrent periods of military dictatorship, but after each period the army has always restored civilian rule and the republican institutions Ataturk devised. That history makes Turkey stand out in the Middle East, where only Israel has a record of continuous democracy.

For those who wonder w_h_ether predominantly Muslim societies can accommodate a liberal democratic ethos, Turkey is the available example. The sort of state the U_S _Administration hopes to build in Iraq already exists in Turkey, and has put down strong roots.

All of this means that Turkey, and any Islamic state that follows its example, is likely to be crucial in determining the course of the war against terror. Al-Qa_eda and similar movements will not restrict their list of targets to such countries, but if they are ultimately to be overcome it will be because other Muslims are not lured by the message they _pr_each.

There i_s l_ittle Western nations can do directly to help Turkey, other than through the police co-operation and intelligence exchanges that already take place. But the Turkish Government should be reassured that it will not be abandoned if there are further terrorist atrocities: to isolate Turkey would be to do al-Qaeda's work.