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Turkey detains more 9 pro-Kurdish party officials

Xinhua, November 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

Nine more pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) officials were detained on Saturday in southeastern Turkey, local media reported.

The provincial and district heads were among the detainees, the Hurriyet daily said.

Special operations teams, backed by police helicopters, raided the homes of the HDP officials in Adana city, it added.

The detainees were taken to the police headquarters for investigations, it noted.

A day earlier, Turkish authorities arrested HDP's co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, and several lawmakers from the party, the third largest in parliament.

The party's officials and lawmakers have been accused of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which security forces are fighting in Turkey's southeast.

In a statement, the HPD claimed that Friday's bomb attack in Turkey's southeastern Diyarbakir province targeted its members.

The governor's office blamed the PKK for the attack, while the Islamic State reportedly claimed the responsibility.

In a statement on its website, the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul advised Americans to "maintain a high level of vigilance," warning of expected demonstrations in the city against the HDP arrests. Endit