Two U.S. Marines were attacked Monday by more than a dozen members of a nationalist group during a visit to Turkey, according to American military officials, resulting in at least 15 arrests after an apparent video of the assault was posted online.
Cmdr. Tim Gorman, a spokesperson for the U.S. Navy, told Forbes the two Marines—who were unnamed—were attacked while “on liberty” during a trip to Izmir, Turkey, on Monday.
The Marines, who are from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit on the USS Wasp, were taken to a hospital as a precaution, though they were uninjured and subsequently returned to the ship, Gorman said.
Thirteen men and two women were arrested and accused of attacking the two Marines, according to Turkish officials.
The Turkey Youth Union, a Turkish nationalist group that reportedly opposes American influence in Turkey, posted a video to X of two men being attacked as a crowd of people can be heard chanting, “Yankee, go home.”
Gorman said Izmir police and the Navy investigators are cooperating in a probe of the assault, adding no Marines had been arrested and those involved were also cooperating in an investigation.
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About 20 people claiming to be members of the Turkish Youth Union attacked three American sailors in Istanbul in 2014, The Washington Post reported. The U.S. Embassy in Turkey condemned the attack, saying a “vast majority” of Turks would view the assault as an “action that so disrespects Turkey’s reputation for hospitality.” In 2016, two members of the group were arrested after attempting to put a sack over the head of an American soldier at an air base in southern Turkey, according to the Associated Press.
Before the attack, the USS Wasp was on a routine deployment to the eastern Mediterranean Sea and had recently completed a training exercise with Turkey, a U.S. ally and a NATO member, Gorman said. The United States and Turkey have been allied for decades, but some points of tension have arisen, including over Turkey’s relationship with Russia and opposition to U.S.-allied Kurdish groups. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also criticized the U.S. over its alliance with Israel. The State Department issued a travel advisory for areas of Turkey last year, citing an increased risk of attacks against Americans by terrorist groups, though the Izmir region is not included in the advisory.