Istanbul: Turkish police detained dozens more suspected Daesh and Kurdish militants in early morning raids on Monday, local media said, amid a crackdown on the armed groups and air strikes in Syria and Iraq.
Long a reluctant member of the US-led coalition against Daesh, Turkey last week made a dramatic turnaround by granting the alliance access to its air bases and bombarding targets in Syria linked to the terrorist movement as well as detaining suspected members in Turkish cities.
Turkish jets also attacked Kurdish insurgent camps in Iraq for a second night on Sunday, in a campaign that could end Ankara’s peace process with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Broadcaster CNN Turk said more than 800 suspected Daesh and PKK members had been arrested in the past week in a domestic crackdown carried out alongside the air strikes.
Some 500 police swept through the Haci Bayram district of the capital Ankara and detained 15 Daesh suspects, 11 of them foreign, the pro-government Yeni Safak daily said.
Operations also took place in the southeastern city of Adiyaman, where 19 people with alleged links to the PKK were detained, it reported.
Turkey’s air strikes on PKK camps in northern Iraq come despite negotiations with the rebels that were launched in 2012 to end a 30-year insurgency. The PKK has said the action has rendered the peace process meaningless.
The Syrian Kurdish YPG, which has links to the PKK but which has coordinated with the United States in the fight against Daesh in northern Syria, meanwhile said on Monday the Turkish army had shelled its positions on the outskirts of the Daesh-held town of Jarablus.
