IZMIR/ADANA, Turkey
Police have launched anti-terror operations early Tuesday in western and southern Turkey, targeting the Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) youth movement.
A total of 16 people, who were allegedly members of the Patriotic Revolutionist Youth Movement (YDG-H) were taken into custody in the 500-strong "dawn operation" launched simultaneously in the Menemen and Torbali districts of the western province of Izmir, security sources said.
The police confiscated pump action shotguns, pistols and a large number of militant documents, they added.
Meanwhile, seven more people were detained in a separate anti-terror operation targeting the group in the southern province of Adana Tuesday.
On Aug. 7, a group of masked YDG-H members allegedly raided a wedding in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir with long-barreled weapons, police said.
The group allegedly threatened to spill blood if the wedding was not cancelled, which prompted the guests to flee in terror.
Afterwards, the group attacked security forces with stun grenades and fireworks.
Police have been carrying out nationwide anti-terror operations to apprehend suspected PKK, Daesh, and DHKP-C militants – all three are designated terrorist organizations in Turkey. The latter, the far-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, was allegedly involved in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on Monday.
Since July 24, around 1,600 people have been arrested in the wave of counter-terrorism raids, amid a spike in attacks targeting security officers after the June 20 deadly suicide bombing in southeastern Suruc that killed 32.
