Turkish police arrest 66 over suspected PKK, ISIL links in raids

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

At least 66 people were arrested on Dec. 1 in operations in two Turkish provinces for suspected links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) or the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).

In northwestern Sakarya province, police arrested four people suspected of being members of the PKK.

Separately, police arrested 62 people for suspected ISIL membership during simultaneous raids in several districts of Istanbul.

The suspects were said to be planning 'terrorist attacks'.

Turkey in 2016 was hit by a string of attacks blamed on ISIL and the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) that left hundreds dead.

Violence between Turkish security forces and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) reignited in the summer of 2015, shattering a fragile peace process, dubbed a “resolution process” by governmental officials, after a two-and-a-half-year de facto period of non-conflict.