Turkish authorities say they have arrested more than a dozen people following a violent assault on two U.S. Marines on shore leave.
The attack happened Monday afternoon in the port town of Izmir and was caught on camera. The men can be heard in the video saying, "Yankee go home."
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Turkey's state-run media said the men are part of the Turkish Youth Union, a nationalist political party that holds anti-American views. On the social media platform X, the group accused U.S. soldiers of carrying "blood of thousands of Palestinians" on their hands.
The two Marines are assigned to the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship. In the days prior to this incident, the ship had been conducting training drills at sea with the Turkish navy, as Turkey is a key U.S. ally and member of NATO.
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The USS Wasp is in the region as part of the U.S. military's positioning of assets intended to deter a wider conflict from erupting in the Middle East.
Local Turkish authorities and the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service are investigating the attack. Both Marines are said to be uninjured.
