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Turkey arrests 44 people in anti-terrorist operations

July 13, 2017 at 4:51 pm

Turkish police have arrested and detained 44 suspects in huge anti-terrorist operations in the city of Istanbul, the city’s governor announced today.

The arrests include a man who is thought have planned bomb attacks in December last year, in which two bombs – one placed in a car and the other strapped to a suicide bomber – exploded outside a football stadium in the city, killing 44 and injuring 155.

Another suspect arrested was identified as the organiser of an attack against a police bus in July 2016, which left 11 people dead and 36 wounded; both police and civilians were targeted in the attack.

A group named the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK), a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), has claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Read more: Kurdish militants kill two ruling party officials in southeast Turkey

The governor of Istanbul, Vasip Sahin, said that the anti-terrorist operations against Kurdish militants and the subsequent arrests have saved the city from further “serious and sensational attacks”.

Turkish authorities have been embroiled in a three-decade-long battle against Kurdish militants fighting for independence or autonomy, led by the PKK – listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the US. In the past two years, conflict has erupted again in the south-east of the country after a ceasefire between the Kurds and the Turkish government was ended by the PKK. Since the conflict began in 1984, over 40,000 people have been killed.