Turkish Police Round Up Senior Members Of Muslim Group
ISTANBUL (AFP) - The Anatolia news agency reported police in Istanbul have rounded up 18 suspected members of the Islamic group Hizbullah including five senior commanders.
Acting on a tip, police raided a house in Kartal district, on Istanbul's Asian side, where the suspects had gathered for a meeting to discuss ways of reviving their organization resulting from massive police crackdowns since January, Anatolia said without specifying when the raid took place.
Among those captured was Mehmet Sudan, believed to have taken over the leadership of the group since mid-January when Hizbullah leader Huseyin Velioglu was killed and two senior commanders captured in a shootout with police in Istanbul, said the news agency.
Following the shootout, police launched a nationwide crackdown on Hizbullah, rounding up hundreds of suspected members and recovering the bodies of 68 people kidnapped and murdered allegedly by the group across Turkey.
Turkish authorities say the group, which is not believed to have links with its Lebanese namesake, aims to overthrow the country's strictly secular order and replace it with an Islamic state.
Hizbullah is blamed for some 500 killings committed between 1991 and 1999.
Prosecutors dealing with the cases have accused Iran of providing military training and financial support for the group.
