ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's Interior Ministry says police have detained 90 people suspected of links to outlawed Kurdish rebels in simultaneous raids in nine Turkish provinces.

The ministry said the operation, launched Tuesday, aimed to prevent future activities of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK. Police seized documents and digital data. The ministry said the operation was still going on. It did not provide further information on those who were detained.

The raids come a week after a blast on a road in southeast Turkey, blamed on the PKK, killed eight soldiers inside an armored military vehicle.

The PKK has waged a more than three-decade-old insurgency in the country's mostly Kurdish southeast region. The group is considered a terror organization by Turkey and its Western allies.