Turkey arrests 11 terror suspects for ties to YPG/PKK

MALATYA, Turkey

Turkish police arrested 11 people for their alleged links to the YPG/PKK terror group, security sources said on Tuesday.

As part of an investigation launched by prosecutors in Malatya, eastern Turkey, anti-terror police carried out a simultaneous operations in Malatya, Istanbul and the Mediterranean city of Kahramanmaras, said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The suspects were accused of having links to the women's branch of the terror group.

Among arrested were F.A., the provincial head of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Malatya, as well as some other party members.

Two suspects sought as part of the operation were learned to be abroad, the source added.

The Turkish government accuses the HDP of links with the terrorist group YPG/PKK, and a large number of local HDP mayors have been suspended from office, facing terrorism charges.

For over 100 days, dozens of families have been staging a sit-in protest outside HDP offices in the southeastern Diyarbakir province, accusing party officials of helping the YPG/PKK forcibly recruiting their children.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union -- has been responsible for deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is the PKK's Syrian branch.

* Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev