Spanish police breaks PKK-linked cell

The Spanish Ministry of Interior announced Tuesday evening its law-enforcement agencies arrested six members of a cell under the accusation of financing the terrorist activities of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Four members of the cell were nabbed in Madrid, one in Murcia and another in Barcelona, the Ministry said in a statement, noting that 11 houses were searched in the crackdown. The terror suspects are accused of forcing their compatriot Kurds living in Spain to pay what they call "a revolutionary tax" and seeking to acquire munitions and transfer them to the PKK in Turkey, it revealed. In synchronization with the security operation, the Spanish and French law-enforcers jointly arrested 15 suspects and seized two firearms and 28,000 Euros, the statement added. The PKK is labeled terrorist organization in Turkey, the European Union and the United States; in 1984 it took up arms against the Turkish government waging a separatist war which left more than 40,000 deaths on both sides.