According to the Ankara-Turkish News Service the Turkish military and police operation against the Islamic terrorist Turkish Hizbullah group relied on intelligence information from Israel. The news service said "Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit confirmed that there had been an exchange of intelligence information between Turkey and Israel." In the past Israel has provided intelligence information to Turkey on the PKK (radical Kurd separatist movement) and (in the 1980s) the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) terror organization.