Police conduct raids across Turkey after deadly bombing attack

Turkey detained 235people over alleged links to Kurdish militants in nationwideraids on Monday, two days after twin bombings killed 44 peopleand wounded about 150 outside an Istanbul soccer stadium.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu vowed those responsible forSaturday's attacks, claimed by an offshoot of the PKK militantgroup, would be "wiped from this geography."

"Our people expect us to defeat and eliminate this terroristorganization, which has attacked our nation for 40 years," Soylusaid while paying a condolence visit to a riot policeheadquarters in Istanbul.

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"We want everyone to know that they will not get anywhere byhiding behind political parties, behind politicians, behindthose media outlets protecting them," Soylu said.

Most of those killed in the bomb blasts were riot police.Funerals were held for a second day on Monday, the victims'coffins draped in the Turkish flag. A cabinet meeting waspostponed to enable government ministers to attend.

A Turkey-based Kurdish faction,known as the Freedom Falcons Movement, claimed responsibility for the bombings.

Also known as TAK, the shadowy group is considered as an offshoot of the PKK. It has also claimed two suicide bombing attacks in Ankara this year.

The PKK, which took up arms against the Turkish state in1984 and is fighting for Kurdish autonomy, is deemed a terroristorganization by the United States and the European Union, as well asby Turkey. Saturday's attack was one of the deadliest claimed byKurdish militants for decades.

Turkish warplanes carried out airstrikes on PKK targets innorthern Iraq, destroying a PKK headquarters and surrounding gunpositions and shelters, an army statement said.

Opposition politiciansarrested

The interior ministry said Monday's arrests were madeacross 11 provinces from northwest to southeast Turkey, and thatthe detainees were held on charges of "spreading terror grouppropaganda" over social media and acting on behalf of the PKK.

Many of those detained were members of the pro-KurdishPeoples' Democratic Party (HDP), parliament's second-biggestopposition grouping, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and thegovernment accuse of links to the PKK.

In a statement on Sunday the HDP said it "harshly condemned"the Istanbul attacks and expressed condolences for the victims.

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The HDP's leaders and several thousand of its members havebeen arrested pending trial over the past year, drawingcriticism from Western allies. The HDP, which last year becamethe first Kurdish party to enter parliament, denies direct linksto militants.

Around dawn, about 500 police, backed by armoured vehiclesand a helicopter, launched an operation in the southern city ofAdana and detained 25 HDP officials there, the state-run Anadolunews agency said.

Counterterror police in Istanbul separately took intocustody 20 HDP officials, including its provincial head, andcarried out searches including the party's main offices in thecity, Anadolu said. The top HDP official in Ankara was among 17people from the party held in raids there.

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