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Turkey arrests soldiers for 'helping terror group'
Turkey has arrested five soldiers in connection with a deadly suicide attack on the military claimed by a Kurdish radical group in the central city of Kayseri, state media said Friday.A bus - carrying low-ranking privates and non-commissioned officers - was attacked after leaving the commando headquarters in the city to take the off-duty soldiers on a shopping trip on December 17. Fourteen soldiers died in the explosion and dozens were wounded. The soldiers, who were based at the same headquarters, are accused of "helping a terrorist organisation" and "leaking military information", including the time the bus would leave, state-run Anadolu Agency said. The attack in Kayseri, an industrial hub in the heartland of Anatolia, was one of many in Turkey in a bloody 2016. A "revenge squad" from the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), seen as a radical offshoot of the outlawed PKK, targeted the off-duty conscripts and "successfully carried out the attack", the group said in a statement published by the pro-PKK Firat news agency. The shadowy organisation is seen by some analysts as more extreme than the PKK although the Turkish government says it is merely a front for the better-known group. The TAK has claimed a string of bombings in Turkey over the last year, including a December double bombing near the Besiktas football stadium that left 46 people dead. Posted by: Steve White 2017-01-15 |
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