Turkish police target leftists after bombing

ISTANBUL: Police arrested more than 100 people including union officials in raids across Turkey yesterday targeting a militant leftist group behind a suicide bomb attack on the US Embassy.
Leftist groups strongly oppose what they see as imperialist US influence over their country.
Yesterday’s raids unfolded after a member of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) blew himself up at an entrance of the US Embassy in Ankara on Feb. 1, killing a Turkish security guard.
The DHKP-C, virulently anti-American and listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and Turkey, has staged a series of deadly attacks on police stations over the last six months.
Police issued arrest warrants for 167 people in 28 provinces across Turkey and by midday detained more than 100 people, among them Akman Simsek, a senior official from public workers union confederation KESK, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.
KESK, a leftist trade union group, demanded the release of their detained members, blaming the raids on an “empire of fear” created by the AK Party of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.