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Five detained for suspected assassination
plot on Turkish governor
26.12.2005
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DIYARBAKIR, Kurdistan-Turkey, Dec 26 (AFP) -
15h49 - Turkish police detained five people Monday
on suspicion of plotting to assassinate the governor
of the mainly Kurdish eastern province of Van on New
Year's eve, local security officials said.
The operation in Van city was carried out jointly by
anti-terror police and intelligence units.
The detainees, among them two women, were suspected
of plotting to assassinate Van Governor Niyazi
Tanilir and other local officials on New Year's eve,
the sources said.
The police also seized a pistol, explosives and
about 200 bullets in the homes of the suspects.
There was no immediate word on whether the suspects
belonged to any outlawed group.
The separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Turkey,
the European Union and the United States, is active
in the region and has attacked government targets in
the past.
In July 2004, a car bomb blamed on the PKK blew up
in downtown Van as the then governor drove by in a
convoy, killing six people and wounding 23 others.
In a separate operation, a man suspected of aiding
the PKK was detained in the province of Sirnak, on
the border with Iraq, local officials said Monday.
In the home of the suspect, the police discovered a
kilogram (2.2 pounds) of plastic explosives and a
mobile telephone devised as a remote-control
detonator, thought to have been destined for PKK
attacks on the security forces.
Unrest in Turkey's mainly Kurdish eastern and
southeastern provinces has markedly increased this
year after the PKK called off a five-year unilateral
ceasefire in June 2004.
The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed some
37,000 lives since the PKK took up arms for Kurdish
self-rule in the region in 1984.
AFP
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