Greece Arrests 11 Extremists From Turkey's DHKP-C Group During Raid In Athens - Police

Greece has arrested 11 members of Turkey's extreme-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C) during a counterterrorism operation in Athens, police said on Friday, noting that they also discovered an arms cache and a tunnel built by the militant group

ATHENS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th March, 2020) Greece has arrested 11 members of Turkey's extreme-left Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C) during a counterterrorism operation in Athens, police said on Friday, noting that they also discovered an arms cache and a tunnel built by the militant group.

The operation was carried out by an anti-terrorism police unit and the National Intelligence Service on March 19 simultaneously in two neighborhoods of Athens - Sepolia and Exarcheia.

"A criminal case has been opened against 11 people arrested for creating and participating in the DHKP-C terrorist organization, as well as committing related crimes and possessing weapons," the police said in a statement.

In addition, 15 other people were detained during the operation. Two of them were arrested - one for illegal stay in the country and the other one for being wanted under an Interpol red notice in connection with his links to the DHKP-C.

During a raid of a house in Sepolia, the police seized large stockpiles of weapons, including anti-tank arms, Kalashnikov rifles, two fuses for grenades and plenty of ammunition.

In addition, the security forces discovered a basement tunnel dug by militants at a depth of 3 meters (10 feet). The 47-meter-long tunnel led from the house to a neighboring parcel of land. The entrance to the tunnel was carefully camouflaged.

The searches in an apartment in Exarcheia resulted in the police seizing mobile phones, laptops, digital data storage devices, hard drives and SIM cards belonging to the militant group.

The DHKP-C, designated as a terrorist group in Turkey, the EU and the US, was founded in 1978 on the basis of radical Marxist-Leninist ideology. Turkey has accused the group of organizing a number of major terrorist attacks, including the one on the US Embassy in Ankara in February 2013.