ANKARA: The leader of Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party warned on Wednesday the country was being dragged into a civil war after a night of nationalist-tinged “lynching” that left several of its offices in flames.

Commentators have said Turkey risks being plunged into a protracted internal conflict, as the government keeps up a huge military operation against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants and the rebels hit back with daily attacks against the security forces.

But the violence on Tuesday night spilt over into the streets, as angry nationalist mobs who accuse the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of collaborating with the PKK attacked its offices in several cities.

The tensions have spiked after 29 soldiers and police were killed in two separate attacks in the country’s east on Sunday and Tuesday, the deadliest strikes in the current phase of the conflict.

Late on Tuesday, a HDP office in the capital Ankara was attacked and torched while another branch in the southern city of Alanya was also set on fire.

A party official that scores of attacks across the country had caused “major damage”.

Turkish media said 93 people were detained in Istanbul alone after the attacks.

HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas denounced what he described as two nights of “lynching” which he said was supported by the government.

“In the last two days more than 400 attacks (on HDP) property have been carried out. We are facing a campaign of lynching.” He said that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had ordered a campaign to target the HDP and said they should be brought to justice.

“It is not us (the HDP) who has taken the decision to start this war and intensify it... the decision has been taken by the president and the prime minister,” he said in televised comments.

“They want to create a civil war and the last two days have been rehearsals for this,” he said.The Turkish army has intensified its relentless one and a half month campaign against the PKK after the latest attacks, sending 150 special forces troops across the border into its stronghold of northern Iraq in hot pursuit of the rebels.

The state-run Anatolia news agency said 100 suspected militants had been killed in combined land and air operations.

Demirtas meanwhile sought to access the city of Cizre in southeast Turkey, which has been under curfew for almost a week as the army presses a military operation that activists say has left seven civilians dead.

His delegation’s vehicles were stopped by police outside the town of Midyat and Demirtas said the group would continue the remaining 90kms on foot.

“They can stop our convoy. But they can’t stop us walking,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2015

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