Turkey arrests 145 people over suspected links to Kurdish militants

Turkish police detained about 145 people across the country overnight suspected of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), state media reported on Tuesday, two days after a bomb attack in Ankara claimed by the militant group.

On Sunday, two attackers detonated a bomb near government buildings in Ankara, killing them both and wounding two police officers. The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group claimed responsibility.

Turkey subsequently carried out air strikes on militant targets in northern Iraq and detained suspects in Istanbul overnight, hours after the PKK made its claim of responsibility.

The latest police operations were centered in Turkey’s southeastern Sanliurfa province.

Four hundred and sixty-six operations have been carried out against the “intelligence units” of Kurdish militant group PKK across the country, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on the X social media platform on Tuesday. Fifty-five suspects have been detained in 16 provinces, he added.