The Turkish prime minister's body guards arrested armed man who tried to approach the premier as he arrived at a mosque for Friday prayers. Read details...

 

The Turkish prime minister's body guards arrested a armed man who tried to approach the premier as he arrived at a mosque for Friday prayers, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

The man — who was carrying a pistol and said he was a relative of a soldier slain by Kurdish rebels — demanded to speak with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the agency said. It wasn't clear how close he actually got to the leader.

The man, identified only as Aydin S., was arrested and taken to a police station for questioning, Anatolia reported.

Erdogan's spokesman could not immediately be reached to confirm the report.

Erdogan's government is under intense domestic pressure to launch a cross-border operation inside northern Iraq to hunt down Kurdish rebels who maintain bases there.

The rebels have carried out a series of hit-and-run attacks that have left close to 50 people dead, most of them soldiers.