Police in Istanbul have rounded up 18 suspected members of the Islamic extremist group Hizbollah, including five senior commanders, Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday.
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, the victim of a massive police crackdown 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 Hizbollah leader Huseyin Velioglu was killed and two senior commanders captured in a shootout with police in Istanbul, the agency said.
Following the shootout, police launched a nationwide crackdown on Hizbollah, rounding up hundreds of suspected members and recovering the bodies of 68 people kidnapped and murdered 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 a hardline Islamic state.
Hizbollah is blamed in all for some 500 murders committed between 1991 and 1999.
Prosecutors dealing with the cases of suspected Hizbollah militants have accused Iran of providing military training and financial support for the group – ISTANBUL (AFP)
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