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Istanbul, 20 June (AKI) - After recent
attacks by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
killed nearly 50 people, Turkish troops intensified
operations against the PKK and other armed groups
over the weekend. Four suspected PKK militants were
arrested in a police raid in Istanbul, where 3.9
kilograms of C-4 type explosives was also seized.
According to police reports, the suspects were
planning to detonate a device at the World Trade
Centre, a crowded commercial complex in Istanbul.
A security officer at the car park of the center,
Ihsan Bilgic, who started working there 20 days ago,
is among the suspects arrested. He has already spent
eight years in prison for being the member of PKK.
Local media claims that Bilgic was not meant to be
directly involved in the bombing but rather help and
support the professional bombers. Bilgic and the
other three suspects are now being interrogated by
the police anti-terror unit.
The funerals of the Turkish soldiers killed in
recent PKK attacks turned into a public outcry on
Saturday. Thousands of people gathered with flags
and protested against the PKK during the funerals in
the soldiers’ hometowns.
The PKK declared a unilateral truce in 1999 but
after relative peace in April this year 21 guerillas
and three soldiers were reported killed in a three
day battle in the Siirt province near the Iraqi
border.
Turkey's war with the separatist PKK guerrillas in
the 1980s and 1990s left more than 30,000 people
dead. The Kurdish rebels are campaigning for a
Kurdish homeland.
Meanwhile, Turkish troops backed by helicopters
killed 17 members of another outlawed armed group,
the Maoist Communist Party (MKP) during their
meeting in the mountainous eastern province of
Tunceli.
The fighting, the worst in recent years, occured on
Saturday around midnight in a remote valley, Mercan,
which is a hotbed for extreme-left groups. Security
forces said senior members of the group were among
the slain.
Military sources say troops captured three militants
alive, along with nearly two dozen rifles and more
than four kilograms of explosives.
MKP, a fraction of the Turkey Worker Peasant
Salvation Army (TIKKO) is far smaller than the PKK
and only active in the eastern provinces of Tunceli,
Tokat and Amasya. They also allegedly have strong
links in big cities such as Istanbul, Ankara and
Izmir. Thirty members of the group were killed in
the past year.
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