Turkish secret service uncovers PKK 'death squad'

The Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) said there are "strong indications" that PKK's Syrian offshoot, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), will conduct seperate attacks in the country's major provinces.

A five-member terrorist group from PYD's armed wing, Popular Protection Units (YPG), based in Syria, will travel to Turkey in forthcoming days for a string of strikes, which will be conducted as deliberate acts of sabotage, according to an intelligence report sent to police departments across 81 provinces earlier this month.

The terrorists have been identified with their codenames, Hamza, Hakki, Kawa, Ali and Shoresh, in the report.

Intelligence authorities say they have “high confidence" that terrorists attended a training camp to learn bomb-making and weapon skills in the border town of Kobani, which had been a battleground between the Daesh terror network and YPG terror groups for nine months last year.

Officials suggest the terrorist group will conduct their assaults by making them look like terror strikes by Daesh. It is also believed that the terrorists plan to carry out strikes in two separate subgroups; one group will consist of two persons, while the other group of three persons.

The content of the intelligence report has prompted authorities to put police forces on high alert throughout Turkey.

The main targets appear to be senior officials from the governing AK Party. Police have stepped up security around the provincial offices, belonging to AK Party, to prevent anticipated strikes in which terrorists will use shocking hit-and-run tactics.

Turkey views PYD and YPG as terrorist organizations because of their links to the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has carried out a nearly four-decade-long armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule in the Southeast. Officials in Ankara say PYD-linked militia forces have recruited nearly 1,500 terrorists trained in PKK camps in northern Iraq.

The PYD itself spells another major concern for Ankara. Turkey has often warned PYD chair, Saleh Muslim, over his ambition to move beyond the western bank of the Euphrates River, which is a critical boundary for Ankara.

Muslim's strategy to expand the territory he controls along the Syrian border with Turkey is one of the main reasons which drove the Turkish military to begin a joint operation together with the moderate opposition groups, fighting under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army, FSA.

The Turkish-backed operation, The Euphrates Shield, mainly aims to root out Daesh terrorists in Jarabulus, which had been taken by the opposition groups within 24 hours.