Turkish security forces recovered some 191 kilograms of explosives and detonating devices equal to "enough to carry out 29 attacks" in a counterterrorism operation against the PKK in southeastern Turkey.
The Governorate of Mardin announced yesterday that one suspect was detained from the province's Şenyurt neighborhood, located near the Syrian border.
Following a tip, counterterrorism police and gendarmerie forces searched a field and a house in the area, discovering explosives, detonators, timers, 15 switches to remotely detonate explosives and other equipment to activate pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) explosives hidden in backpacks. The officials believe that the explosives were smuggled into the country from Syria for terror attacks in big cities in western Turkey.
PETN is a highly explosive compound similar to nitroglycerin and is widely used in demolition and for mining. It is a common explosive easy to manufacture and is often used as a component of the more powerful plastic explosive Semtex. In November 2018, security forces seized nearly 250 kilograms of PETN in a car in another district of Mardin. They also detained five PKK members.
