Turkish police on Tuesday detained 12 journalists working for various Kurdish news outlets in pre-dawn raids in Ankara, Istanbul and Manisa and the predominantly Kurdish cities of Mardin, Diyarbakir, Urfa and Van.

The detentions are part of an escalating campaign against journalists working for outlets that report on rights abuses particularly in the Kurdish majority southeast, including the Mezopotamya News Agency and the all-female JINNEWS. Diren Yurtsever, editor-in-chief of Mezopotamya, was among seven women who were remanded in custody today. All were brought to Ankara where they are being held at the Ankara Security Directorate’s counterterrorism branch.

Journalists present during the raids described violent scenes. Police with long-range rifles “forced me to lay face down on the floor and sat on top of me as they handcuffed me,” said Dilan Babat, a reporter for JINNEWS, who shared a flat with fellow female reporters in Ankara. Babat told ArtiGercek, an independent online news outlet, that police had seized all their equipment, including their laptops and mobile phones. “There was a lot of cursing and insults,” she said.

Zemo Aggoz, a reporter for Mezopotamya, was allowed to nurse her six-week-old infant only following an outcry on social media.