By REUTERS
ISTANBUL, April 6 (Reuters) - Turkey's armed forces issued a statement on Wednesday criticising, in unusually strong terms, the detention of 163 officers on trial for allegedly plotting a coup against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government."The Turkish Armed Forces is having difficulty in understanding the continued detention of the 163 serving and retired personnel," the military said in a statement, adding it had refrained from actions interfering in the judicial process.Turkey holds a national election on June 12, and opinion polls show Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, or AK Party, is set to score a third consecutive victory. The military's comments are likely to revive tensions ahead of it.The "Sledgehammer" case, based on a coup plot allegedly hatched at an army seminar in 2003, is one of several setting the secularist establishment against a ruling party which critics suspect of having a secret Islamist agenda."The Turkish Armed Forces has repeatedly made statements... explaining in a way that can leave no doubt what the seminar was, how it was done, what it encompassed and who took part under what orders," it added.
Direct hit in Kerem Shalom, multiple people injured