Turkish police on Thursday detained 44 suspects in anti-terrorist operations, including the planners of two suicide bomb attacks on Jan. 12, 2016 in Istanbul.
Twin bombs, one planted in a car and the other strapped to a suicide bomber, exploded in an attack outside the stadium of Besiktas soccer club in central Istanbul on Dec. 10, killing 44 people and wounding 155.
“One of the suspects detained in the operation had carried out reconaissance work before the December 2016 bombing, and had jumped and fled the car shortly before it was detonated,” Istanbul governor, Vasip Sahin, said.
The other suspect detained has been identified as the organiser of a July 2016 attack against a police bus that killed 11 people, including civilians and police officers, and left 36 people wounded.
The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks, an offshoot of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), claimed responsibility for both attacks.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU, and the U.S., has fought a three-decades-old insurgency in Turkey in which more than 40,000 people have been killed.
NAN reports that Turkey issued detention warrants on Wednesday for 34 former personnel of the state-owned broadcaster TRT in an investigation targeting supporters of the U.S.-based cleric accused of being behind last July’s failed coup, state media said.
All 34 were suspected users of ByLock, an encrypted messaging app the government says was used by cleric Fetullah Gulen’s followers, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. They were previously dismissed due to alleged links to the putsch.
In a separate operation, police detained 14 non-commissioned army officers early on Wednesday in six provinces in an investigation into the coup attempt, Dogan news agency said.
About 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial and some 150,000 state workers including teachers, judges and soldiers, have been suspended in the crackdown under emergency rule which was imposed soon after the attempted military takeover. (Reuters/NAN)
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