Turkish authorities have arrested 718 people, including leaders of the Prokurdish HDP party, the Turkish Interior Ministry said on Monday (February 15th).

These people are suspected of links with the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) to which Ankara on Sunday blamed the "execution" of 13 Turks in Iraq.

"A large number of weapons, documents and digital material belonging to the (terrorist) organization were seized during the searches," added the Interior Ministry, adding that operations in 40 cities across the country were still in progress.

PKK refutes Ankara's version

Turkey accused the PKK on Sunday of having executed 13 of its nationals, mostly members of the security forces, whom it had held captive in northern Iraq for several years.

According to Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Turkish soldiers have discovered 13 lifeless bodies in a cave in the Gara region of northern Iraq, where Ankara has been carrying out an operation since Wednesday against the PKK, a group described as "terrorist" by Ankara and its Western allies.

The PKK on Sunday admitted the deaths of a group of prisoners, but refuted Ankara's version, claiming that they were killed in Turkish airstrikes.

Tensions between Washington and Ankara

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday rekindled one of the main points of contention between Turkey and the United States by accusing them of supporting Kurdish "terrorists" after Ankara's "execution" of 13 Turks in Iraq in the hands of the PKK rebels.

The US State Department said Sunday to "deplore" the deaths.

"If the information on the death of Turkish civilians at the hands of the PKK, an organization classified as terrorist, is confirmed, we condemn these actions in the strongest terms," ​​he added in a statement.

"The statements of the United States are deplorable. You say you do not support the terrorists but you are indeed on their side," the Turkish president said during a speech.

If Washington considers the PKK a terrorist organization, it nonetheless supports Kurdish militias linked to it in Syria as part of the fight against the Islamic State group.

This support for the Syrian Kurdish militias of the YPG, which began under the administration of Barack Obama, has for several years been at the heart of the tensions that plague Turkish-American relations.

With AFP

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