Turkiye detains 20 after Ankara bombing

A journalist works on live coverage afar from demonsrators as Turkish riot police block journalists to shoot a press release in front of a pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) office, at Beyoglu district in Istanbul on October 2, 2023 [BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images]

Security forces in Turkiye have detained twenty people suspected of having links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which claimed responsibility for Sunday’s suicide bombing outside the interior ministry’s headquarters in the capital, Ankara.

According to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on Monday, more than two dozen “operations” were carried out in Istanbul and Kirklareli, a city in Turkiye’s far north-west. Weapons and ammunition were seized during Monday’s security operations.

One of the bombers blew himself up while the other was shot dead by police, said the Turkish authorities. Two policemen were injured in the attack.

Turkiye has been pursuing Kurdish militants in northern Iraq since April last year, in response to the party’s military operations in Turkish territory. According to the Turkish government, the PKK is responsible for killing 40,000 people, both civilians and military personnel, during its separatist activities which remain ongoing after almost forty years.

READ: Terrorists will never succeed in destroying peace in Turkiye, says President Erdogan

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