Killed In Raid On IS Militants In Turkey

Police were carrying out simultaneous raids on 17 houses suspected of harboring IS militants at around 3.00 a.m., Hurriyet Daily News reported.

The state-run Anadolu agency said two police officers were killed by booby-trap bombs during the operation in the city of Diyarbakır.

“An important ISIL cell has been neutralized”, he told reporters.

Police and private security teams were out in force, with Turkey still on edge after the October 10 bombings in the heart of the capital, the worst in the country’s history.

Government officials warned last week that four suspected Islamic State militants had traveled from Syria to Turkey to carry out an attack.

A number of the casualties were activists of the pro-Kurdish HDP party, which considers the bombings’ delegation in the march was especially targeted.

Mr. Erdogan also accused Kurdish militants with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the PKK, and Syrian intelligence of orchestrating the attack.

Turkish army units have opened fire on fighters from the main Kurdish force in northern Syria deployed across the border in a majority Arab town, the Kurdish force and an allied rebel said Monday.

Ankara, which is staunchly opposed to the regime of President Bashar Assad, joined the coalition against Daesh and allowed the United States to use its territory for the air war.

“No one should expect slackness”, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech to village leaders at the presidential palace in Ankara. Media reports have said the bomber who has been identified was known to authorities as a possible suicide attacker.

Prosecutors on Monday held four people suspected of playing a role in the Ankara attack and said they had discovered a cache of suicide vests, Kalashnikovs and hand grenades suggesting there were plans for further bombings.