Turkish police arrest 11 suspected Daesh militants

Security forces in Turkey have arrested nearly a dozen suspected members of the Takfiri Daesh militant group.

On Thursday, anti-terror squads conducted a string of simultaneous raids on more than 20 locations across Turkey’s most populous city of Istanbul, situated some 574 kilometers (357 miles) northwest of the capital, Ankara, detaining 11 suspects.

Police officials said seven foreigners were among those detained.

The detentions come ahead of the G20 summit, which is due in the Turkish Mediterranean resort city of Antalya on November 15 and 16, and following a series of deadly attacks in Turkey, which claimed dozens of lives and were blamed on the Takfiri group.

Turkey has time and again been accused of aiding and abetting supporters of militant groups operating in Syria, with reports saying that Ankara actively trains and arms the Takfiri militants there, and facilitates their safe passage into the Arab country.

Turkish opposition media have accused Ankara of such support for the militants. In one instance, footage provided by Turkish opposition media implicated Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT) in ensuring safe passage into Syria for Daesh terrorists.

The presence of purported Daesh members in Turkey, which prompts the raids against them, seems to be a side-effect of Turkish support for the militants in Syria.

Turkish police slain

Meanwhile, a Turkish policeman has lost his life in a terrorist attack purportedly by members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey’s beleaguered southeastern province of Diyarbakir.

Turkish security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said PKK militants launched a rocket attack against an armored police vehicle in the town of Silvan, situated more than 450 kilometers (279 miles) east of the capital, Ankara, on Wednesday evening, killing the policeman.

Turkey has been engaged in one of large-scale military operations in its southern border region in the recent past. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the positions of the PKK in northern Iraq.

The operations began in the wake of a deadly July 20 bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc, an ethnically Kurdish town located close to border with Syria. Over 30 people died in the Suruc attack, which the Turkish government blamed on Daesh.

After the bombing in Suruc, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of supposedly reprisal attacks against Turkish police and security forces, in turn prompting the Turkish military operations.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk