Security forces capture 22 suspected Hizbullah militants

Police and Gendarme forces have arrested 22 suspected Hizbullah militants -- an outlawed organization acting in Turkey not related to the Lebanese group of the same name -- in a series of operations conducted in 18 different provinces, private CNN Türk television has reported on its Web site.

Acting upon intelligence that the group is trying to regroup, police and gendarmerie officers focused its operations mainly in the provinces of Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Batman and Mardin. As part of the operations some 500 or so people were questioned. 

According to information from intelligence and counter-terrorist sources, no mass graves were found. Previously, in operations against this outlawed religious organization, teams have found mass graves inside the grounds of safe houses. These operations resulted in the arrest of hundreds of suspects with the total amount of bodies recovered from mass graves standing at 59. Videos depicting victims of Hizbullah being tortured and executed were also recovered.

[hh] How did Hizbullah come onto agenda?

Hizbullah's formation dates back to the mid-1980s when the group carried out limited activities coordinated from certain bookstores selling religious books. Its most violent acts were committed mostly in the early 1990s.

After fighting between Turkish security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) intensified, Hizbullah started training armed militants and directed them against the PKK, the ideology of which they perceived as including atheistic notions.

As the Turkish army began to suppress the PKK militarily, Hizbullah militants expanded their list of targets and conducted low-level bombings against liquor stores and other establishments that the organization considered “anti-Islamic.”

It was considered the beginning of the end of the organization when Hüseyin Velioğlu, the head of Hizbullah, was shot dead in 2000 when police raided the safe house within which he was hiding.