ANKARA
Turkish security forces have taken three suspects into custody in an early-morning anti-terror operation in the capital, Ankara, targeting Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) suspects.
According to gendarme sources, squads from Ankara Provincial Gendarmerie Command conducted simultaneous raids in Yenimahalle, Sincan and Kecioren districts on Friday, against the "youth and urban organization of the PKK", which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU.
Ankara police said the operation is the continuation of a July swoop in the capital on PKK youth-wing members in Yenimahalle district, adding that all three were detained on charges of suspected preparation of terrorist actions.
Police also seized a blank gun cartridge along with a number of organizational documents as they searched suspects’ addresses.
Teams from Ankara anti-terror police were also present to supervise the operation in which 100 gendarme troops participated.
The operation is continuing.
Friday's raids followed a wave of similar anti-terror operations by Istanbul police on Thursday in the city's Umraniye district; these targeted supporters of Daesh, the PKK and the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front after police defused a bomb in the Okmeydani district late on Wednesday.
Turkish security forces have detained more than 1,300 suspects nationwide since July 24, according to the prime minister's office.
The recent counter-terrorism crackdown came after the country's southeastern border regions were hit by a series of attacks which started in Sanliurfa with a July 20 suicide bombing blamed on Daesh that killed 32 people, plus the fatal shooting of two police officers -- claimed by the PKK -- two days later.
