Turkey on Tuesday remanded 10 people in custody in connection with the attack on two US Marines in the western Turkish port city of Izmir.
Several members of a Turkish nationalist group, the Turkish Youth Union, or TGB, attacked two U.S. Marines aboard the amphibious assault ship on Monday USS Wasp, which docked at the city’s port on Sunday, according to the Izmir governorate.
Pentagon spokesman Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Tuesday that the two Marines were not injured and were “safe.” He added that they were helped by other Marines in the area during the incident and were later taken to a local hospital for evaluation as a precaution before returning to the Pentagon. Wasp.
“This is clearly a concerning incident. We are grateful for the support of the Turkish authorities as they investigate this matter,” Mr Ryder said.
He added that no Marines have been arrested by authorities and that those involved in the incident are cooperating with investigators.
Turkish authorities arrested 15 people on Monday over the incident, and a Turkish court released five of them on Tuesday under supervision. The other 10 were remanded in custody until the charges against them are heard.
According to a video shared by the TGB on social media, TGB members were seen putting a bag over the head of a US Marine.
“No one will be able to answer the calls for help from American soldiers. Your hands are stained with the blood of our brave soldiers and thousands of Palestinians. You will leave our lands!” TGB wrote on X, tagging the X accounts of the US Embassy in Turkey and the US Department of Defense.
“(The American soldiers) put a bag over the heads of our soldiers in Sulaymaniyah,” a TGB member said in the video, referring to an incident in which American troops arrested at least 11 Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq in 2003.
Turkish media reported that the heads of the arrested Turkish soldiers were covered with bags, and the arrests sparked a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and the United States. The incident is known in Turkey as the “hood incident.”
The video also shows several TGB members chanting “Yankee, go home,” a historic anti-American slogan associated with left-wing protests in Turkey in the 1960s.
Reports confirmed
In a statement released Monday, the Izmir governorate announced that two women and 13 men, members of the TGB, physically attacked two American soldiers in civilian clothes.
“Five American soldiers in civilian clothes joined the incident after seeing it from a distance, and our security forces quickly intervened,” the governorate said.
The U.S. Embassy in Turkey confirmed reports of the attack on Monday. “We thank the Turkish authorities for their prompt response and ongoing investigation,” the embassy said on X.
In a statement to VOA, a White House National Security Council spokesperson also said, “We are troubled by this attack on U.S. service members and appreciate that Turkish police are taking this matter seriously and holding those responsible accountable for their actions.”
On Sunday, the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS, reported that Wasp was in Turkey “for a regularly scheduled stopover” that “provides an opportunity to further strengthen the strategic partnership between the United States and Turkey.”
According to DVIDS, the U.S. personnel’s program included “tours organized by the ship’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation team, such as a tour of the historic site of Ephesus, snorkeling and scuba diving, and a guided tour of the cultural sites of Izmir.”
U.S. 6th Fleet spokesman and Navy Commander Timothy Gorman told VOA that the two Marines who were attacked were from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Tensions in the Middle East
The United States sent the Wasp to the eastern Mediterranean for deterrence reasons in June, amid heightened tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. USS Bataan and the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford had already been deployed to the region after the October 7 attack.
Omer Celik, spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, criticized the deployments.
“Every warship, every aircraft carrier that other countries send there will provide an opportunity that will benefit those who say that violence must continue and that violence must spread even further in the region,” Celik said.
THE Wasp U.S. Marines participated in bilateral sea training with two Turkish Navy ships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea from August 13 to 17. The U.S. Marines shared information about the joint training, but the Turkish Ministry of National Defense did not publicly announce it.
Later in August, Turkish media reported that Wasp The two ships docked in Cyprus as part of the increased U.S. presence in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party criticized the government for not disclosing the existence of the joint training.
VOA Turkish Service’s Ogulcan Bakiler in Izmir and Begum Donmez Ersoz in Istanbul contributed to this report. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb also contributed to this report.
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