Police uprooted barricades erected by leftist militants in the streets around a house in an Istanbul suburb where former prisoners and their supporters have been participating in the hunger strike.

Some threw Molotov cocktails and rocks at police, eyewitnesses said. Police used tear gas against the protesters and a police helicopter hovered overhead.

Police detained nine people during that raid, including three women, Istanbul police chief Hasan Ozdemir said. He said four of those detained were hunger strikers, and added that they had all been hospitalized.

Police raided another house in a different suburb later Tuesday and detained all seven hunger strikers there, the Anatolia news agency reported.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths in Tuesday's raid. Last week, four people died after a similar police raid on another house.

Leftist militants said the four were killed by police gunfire, but police said they died after setting themselves on fire. The Justice Ministry's forensic department said autopsies on the four bodies showed no signs of gunshot wounds.

Three inmates in various Turkish prisons also died after setting themselves on fire to protest last week's raid.

Since the hunger strike began last year, 41 people have starved to death. The hunger strikers have been taking sugar and salt water with vitamins to prolong their fast.

Many of the fasting prisoners are members of outlawed Marxist organizations that have claimed responsibility for scores of attacks and assassinations over the past decade.

The government says it needs to break up the large, ward-type prison cells because it allows banned groups to use prisons as training camps for militants

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