(AFP) - Turkey arrested nearly 200 officials from a pro-Kurdish party and struck Kurdish militants in Iraq Monday in response to this weekend's twin bombings claimed by a radical Kurd separatist group.
The toll from Saturday's attacks, which struck an Istanbul football stadium and a nearby park, rose to 44 on Monday, Health Minister Recep Akdag said.
Turkish jets pounded targets in northern Iraq, with the military saying it had hit "separatist terrorist organization members", referring to the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The armed forces said it struck targets in the Zap region of northern Iraq destroying the militants' headquarters as well as nearby shelters and gun
positions.
And Turkish police detained 198 pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) officials over alleged links to Kurdish militants in a countrywide operation,
state news agency Anadolu reported.