December 15, 2017•Update: December 15, 2017
By Sorwar Alam
ANKARA
Turkish security forces detained nine people including seven alleged members of the PKK/PYD/KCK terrorist organization, a security source and local government office said Friday.
The Gendarmerie General Command in the Akcakale district southeastern Turkey’s Sanliurfa arrested seven people in an operation, said a security source.
Five of them are suspected members of the terror group while the remaining two are accused of aiding and abetting the PKK terrorists, said the source.
They have been trying to cross the Turkish border illegally into the Syrian city of Tal Abyad -- controlled by the PKK/PYD terrorist group.
The PKK/PYD is the Syrian branch of the PKK terrorist network, which has waged war against Turkey for more than 30 years. Turkey considers the PKK, PYD and YPG as one and the same.
Meanwhile, counterterrorism police units in another southeastern province, Mus, captured people in an ongoing investigation into the PKK/KCK terror group, said the local authority.
A detainee’s fingerprint was found on an explosive-laden minibus intercepted by the security forces on July 7, 2016, according to the Mus governorate office.
In another raid in Diyarbakir and Mardin provinces more alleged members of the PKK terrorist group were arrested in an ongoing investigation into a bomb-laden vehicle intercepted in Istanbul on Nov. 12.
The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU as well as Turkey -- resumed its armed campaign in July 2015. Since then, it has killed more than 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civilians, including women and children.
* Mustafa Guclu from Sanliurfa, Ibrahim Yaldiz from Mus and Halil Demir from Istanbul contributed to this story.
