Operations continue in Istanbul against outlawed leftist group

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

The outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) group claimed responsibility for the Feb. 1 suicide attack targeting the U.S. Embassy in Ankara. AA photo

Security forces detained an undisclosed number of people over alleged links to the outlawed leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) in a series of raids that took place in the early hours of today in Istanbul’s Okmeydanı neighborhood.

Several locations in Okmeydanı were raided by security forces with support from a unit helicopter. Police forces had to break through the doors and struggle against members of the organization who allegedly put up a fight to prevent the forces from entering the buildings. The alleys and streets leading to the locations were closed down during the operations.

Security officials confiscated allegedly illegal documents during the raids, loading them on to tracks.

A similar set of raids occurred on March 14, with police forces detaining over 13 people who were present at a fifth-floor apartment in Okmeydanı. Forces had to use pepper gas on the suspects, before breaking down all iron doors of the rooms inside the house.

The ongoing crackdown on the organization prompted a hunger strike in Tekirdağ Prison, with charged or convicted members of the organization staging the protest against the raids. Some 43 members are now refusing to eat or receive medical treatment, Doğan news agency reported.

The outlawed group claimed responsibility for the Feb. 1 suicide attack targeting the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, which killed one person, as well as the attacker, Ecevit Şanlı. Security forces have been intensifying raids on locations linked to the organization since the bombing.