The left-wing guerrilla alliance " Peoples’ United Revolutionary Movement" (Halkların Birleşik Devrim Hareketi, HBDH) has claimed responsibility for a series of actions against the police in the southern Turkish city of Mersin. According to a statement, the actions are said to have taken place between 15 and 20 December in the central Akdeniz district of the city.

According to the HBDH, a police checkpoint was booby-trapped during the series of actions which left several police officers injured. HBDH militia also targeted a police informer who was supplying the authorities with information about activists from revolutionary patriotic movements in the region and involved in drug trafficking. The apartments and vehicles of the alleged informer and members of his drug network were also hit.

There is a complex of deep state and organized crime in Turkey, which is involved in the drug trade and, especially in the Kurdish populated regions, promotes drug use as a means of counterinsurgency.

In the past year, the HBDH has in particular carried out actions against companies that profit from the war or produce armaments for the Turkish army but has also directly targeted members of the military and police. The alliance has announced that it will intensify its actions in 2020.