[1] The two Islamic militants who carried out the attack, Engin Vural and Nihat Doğruel, were holding automatic weapons and had ten homemade pipe bombs strapped to their flak jackets when they entered the restaurant frequented by freemasons.
Shooting the guard in his feet, they entered the dining hall and began firing at the forty people in the room.
On March 11, the newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi received a statement which claimed that an al-Qaeda affiliated group, Jund al-Quds, ('Soldiers of Jerusalem'), had carried out the attack.
The statement's primary purpose was to claim responsibility for the March 11, 2004 Madrid attacks.
While Turkish authorities said there was likely an al-Qaeda link, the surviving bomber, Engin Vural, claimed it was an independent act he planned along with the dead bomber, Nihat Doğruel.