Turkey arrests 100s amid offensive against IS, Kurdish militants
 

Turkey arrests 100s amid offensive against IS, Kurdish militants
http://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/t...6&q=60&o=f&l=f"We have given instructions for a third ****** of strikes in Syria and Iraq. Air and ground operations are under way," Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara, adding that 590 suspected members of the IS group and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had been arrested in raids across Turkey. The two-pronged operation against the IS group and the PKK -- two groups who are themselves bitterly opposed -- came after a week of deadly violence in Turkey the authorities blamed on the two militant organisations. Turkish F-16 war planes took off from their base in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir to carry out the strikes against the IS group and the PKK and all returned safely to base early Saturday. The raids against the IS group, which began before dawn Friday, marked a major shift in policy towards the group by key NATO member Turkey, which has faced severe criticism from its Western allies for **t doing e**ugh to combat the jihadists. Davutoglu said that “these operations are **t ‘one-point operations’ and will continue as long as there is a threat against Turkey”. Jihadist-free ‘safe zones’ Davutoglu also said that the first air bombing operation early Friday against the IS group had "100 percent" achieved its goals. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference that once “areas in **rthern Syria are cleared of the [IS group] threat, the safe zones will be formed naturally”. “We have always defended safe zones and **-fly zones in Syria. People who have been displaced can be placed in those safe zones,” he said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said nine IS group fighters were killed in the first attacks and 12 wounded. But on Saturday planes also bombed PKK positions positions in neighbouring Iraq, where the group's military forces are based. The PKK confirmed the attack, saying Turkish warplanes had struck its mountain positions in the **rth of the Dohuk province, which is part of Iraq's **rthern auto**mous region of Kurdistan. "At around 11:00 pm tonight, Turkish warplanes started bombing our positions near the border, accompanied by heavy artillery shelling," PKK spokesman in Iraq Bakhtiar Dogan told AFP. In a statement on its website, PKK declared that its truce with Ankara “has ** meaning anymore after these intense air strikes by the occupant Turkish army”. The Turkish air strikes against the PKK targets in **rthern Iraq have meanwhile also raised questions about the future of the delicate peace process between Turkey and Kurdish rebels, who until **w have largely observed a ceasefire since 2013. Arrests and protests The fighting has erupted after the killing of 32 people in a suicide bombing Monday in the Turkish town of Suruc on the Syrian border carried out by a 20-year old Turkish man linked to the IS group. The attack, which targeted Turkish activists preparing an aid mission in Syria, sparked an upsurge in violence in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, where many accuse Turkish authorities of collaborating with the IS group. Turkish police on Friday swooped on suspected members of the IS group and the PKK, which has waged a separatist insurgency against the government in the southeast for decades. A total of 297 people including 37 foreigners were detained, Davutoglu said, adding that the raids took place in 16 provinces across Turkey. As well as the IS group and the PKK, the operation targeted suspected members of the PKK's youth wing, The Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H), and the Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party Front (DHKP-C). With tensions running high across the country, Turkish police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a protest in the Istanbul district of Kadikoy by hundreds of people to de**unce IS group violence. In the anti-establishment district of Gazi, protesters threw Molotov cocktails and engaged in pitched battles with police, an AFP photographer said. 'Deal on air base' Turkey has been accused of colluding with IS extremists in the hope they might further Ankara's aim of toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Ankara has always vehemently denied the claims but the NATO member has dodged playing a full role in the US-led coalition assisting Kurds fighting IS militants. **w, however, Ankara has finally given the green light to US forces for the use of its Incirlik base for air strikes against the IS group in Syria and Iraq, according to American and Turkish officials. "A decision has been taken for Turkey's own security," Davutoglu added, declining to give details on the agreement. (FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)