Hundreds detained in fresh wave of operations against ISIL, PKK

ISTANBUL

AP photo

A total of 15 suspects have been detained in the capital Ankara’s Hacıbayram neighborhood in an anti-terror police operation against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), amid a fresh wave of anti-terror operations across the country which saw more than 200 suspects detained.

A pre-dawn anti-ISIL police operation with multiple raids involving around 500 police officers from the Ankara Police Department Counterterrorism Unit resulted in the detention of 15 suspects on July 27, according to Anadolu Agency.

Over the past two days, more than 250 suspects have been detained in multiple provinces in Turkey in a fresh wave of anti-terror police operations against ISIL and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

As many as 129 suspects were detained in an anti-PKK operation in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır and explosives, ammunitions and several PKK-linked documents were seized during multiple raids in Diyarbakır’s six districts of Dicle, Silvan, Lice, Hazro, Bismil and Ergani, Doğan News Agency reported on July 27.

An anti-terror police operation against the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), the youth wing of the PKK, in the eastern province of Erzurum on July 27 resulted in the detention of 34 suspects, according to Anadolu Agency.

A total of 40 suspects were detained in two other anti-terror police operations in the early hours of July 27. Twenty suspects were detained in an anti-YDG-H operation in the southeastern province of Gaziantep while another 20 suspects were detained in an anti-PKK operation in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, media reports said.

Sixteen suspects were detained and four rifles, including a pump-action type, were seized in the southern province of Mersin early July 27 in an anti-ISIL operation launched jointly by the counterterrorism units of the Mersin Police Department and the Tarsus Police Department, a district police department in Mersin’s Tarsus district.

Also, seven other suspects, including four Syrians, were detained in Mersin on July 26 for conducting recruiting activities for ISIL in an anti-terror police operation launched by the Mersin Police Department Counterterrorism Unit. 

A total of 13 suspects were detained in the southeastern province of Adıyaman in an anti-terror operation against the youth wing of the PKK on July 27, with multiple raids conducted by officers of the Adıyaman Police Department Counterterrorism Unit.

Eight suspects were detained in seven provinces - Hatay, Istanbul, Gaziantep, Elazığ, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman and Diyarbakır - in a series of anti-terror operations against the YDG-H on July 27.

College students were among the eight detained suspects, while three others were still sought by the police, Hatay Governor Ercan Topaca told Anadolu Agency.

Nine suspects, including a PKK member, were detained and several PKK-linked documents and flags were seized in the Aegean province of İzmir early July 27 in an anti-terror police operation against the PKK and a leftist organization.

Three suspects, including a purported senior PKK leader, were detained and the residential plans of police lodges and weapons were seized in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa on July 26 in an anti-terror police operation launched by the Şanlıurfa Police Department upon an intelligence that Abdülhamit A., a purported senior leader of the PKK, was in Şanlıurfa’s Suruç district, where a suicide bombing left dozens dead and more than a hundred injured early last week. 

Six other suspects were detained in multiple anti-terror operations against the PKK and ISIL in the provinces of Adana, Zonguldak and Siirt July 26.