Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Turkish police raid leftist group after U.S. embassy bombing

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Police launched raids across Turkey early on Tuesday targeting a militant leftist group behind a suicide bomb attack on the U.S. embassy, ordering the arrest of nearly 200 people, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.

The nationwide operation came after a member of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) blew himself up at an entrance of the U.S. embassy in Ankara on February 1, killing a Turkish security guard.

Turkish police officers react after an explosion at the entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara February 1, 2013 in this picture provided by Milliyet Daily Newspaper. REUTERS/Yavuz Ozden/Milliyet Daily Newspaper/Handout

Anti-terror police arrested 15 people in the western coastal province of Izmir and two other provinces in operations targeting a group called the Revolutionary Civil Servant Movement, believed to be linked to the DHKP-C, Anatolian said.

It said police issued an order for the arrest of 167 people in 28 provinces across the country.

The DHKP-C, virulently anti-American and listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and Turkey, has carried out a series of deadly attacks on police stations in the last six months.

The attack on the U.S. embassy followed the detention of dozens of people in raids targeting people linked to the DHKP-C in January.

(Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Andrew Heavens)