Turkish police detained 15 suspects in an operation
involving raids across the southeastern province of Adana targeting
the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, the state-run
Anadolu Agency said on Sunday.
The raids come as fighting between security forces and PKK
militants in the largely Kurdish southeast has escalated to new
heights since the collapse of a 2-1/2-year ceasefire between the
state and the militant group in July of last year.
On Friday, a car bomb in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir
killed 11 people and wounded at least 100, hours after Turkish
authorities detained the leaders and lawmaker of the main
pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), whom the
government accuses of links to the PKK.
Officials blamed the autonomy-seeking PKK, citing radio
intercepts, although Islamic State also claimed responsibility for
the attack, according to the group's Amaq news agency. Kurdish
militants, Islamic State radicals and far leftists have all staged
attacks on civilians in Turkey in recent years.
Anadolu said the anti-terror police raids, backed by helicopter,
were carried out simultaneously at various spots across the
city.
In security operations over the past week, 28 PKK militants were
"neutralized", the Interior Ministry said on Monday.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since
the PKK took up arms in 1984. It is considered a terrorist group by
Turkey, the United States and the European Union.