Kurdish security forces have detained dozens of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) supporters for protesting against the latest Turkish military incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan, a party official said Wednesday, adding some received "beatings".
"Fifty-four protesters were arrested during a rally in Sulaimaniyah" on Sunday by Kurdish security forces, in the south of the autonomous northern Iraqi region, Mohammed Abdallah, head of the Movement for the Freedom of Kurdistan Society, told AFP.
Abdallah, whose party is close to the PKK, said that some of those arrested were subjected to "violence, beatings and insults by the police".
Kurdish authorities have not provided any details on the purported arrests and it is not known if charges have been brought.
The demonstration was organised the day after the Turkish military launched a cross-border ground and air operation against the PKK in the north of Iraqi Kurdistan near the Turkish border, Abdallah said.
The PKK, classified as a "terrorist" group by Ankara, has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, resulting in over 40,000 deaths.
AFP
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