Turkish police launch operations against al-Qaida

Twenty-nine people were arrested due to alleged links to al-Qaida in simultaneous operations throughout Turkey early Friday morning, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

The operations took place at local time 2:30 a.m. (2330 GMT Thursday) in Istanbul and other cities of Adana, Antalya and Canakkale following a two-month investigation by the Adana police department's counter-terrorism unit, said the report.

Following the two-month technical and physical tracking, 30 addresses in Adana, two in Istanbul, two in Antalya and one in Canakkale were simultaneously raided by 400 police officers from the special forces department.

The suspects chanted "they are accusing us because we are Muslims" and "infidel" while being brought to the police station, said the report.

The raids also apprehended one pistol, many organizational documents as well as CDs, DVDs and computers.

According to the report, police director Mehmet Salih Kesmez said the operation was still ongoing to capture another two suspects and with the public prosecutors permission more raids will be conducted at different places in the future.

Source: Xinhua