ANKARA — Turkish authorities on Tuesday detained senior members of a medical association who have spoken out against Ankara's military offensive in a Syrian Kurdish enclave, the country's state-run media reported.

Rasit Tukel, the chief of the Turkish Medical Association, and seven other association members were detained in police operations in Ankara and other cities for breach of Turkey's anti-terror laws, Anadolu Agency reported. It said prosecutors had issued warrants for 11 members of the association.

The prosecutor said police in Ankara started legal proceedings on Tuesday morning and search-and-detention operations were going on in eight provinces.

TTB head Rasit Tukel and other members of the board had been detained, opposition CHP lawmaker Ali Seker said on Twitter.

The association's lawyer Ziynet Ozcelik said they faced accusations of "propaganda in support of a terrorist organization, and provoking the public". Ozcelik said it was the first time in the association's history that all its executive members had been ordered detained.

The Turkish Medical Association denounced the cross-border operation into Syria's Afrin last week, saying "No to war, peace immediately".

President Tayyip Erdogan accused the union of treason on Sunday. "Believe me, they are not intellectuals at all, they are a gang of slaves. They are the servants of imperialism," he told AK Party members in the northern province of Amasya.

"This 'No to war' cry by this mob ... is nothing other than the outburst of the betrayal in their souls ... This is real filth, this is the honorless stance that should be said 'no' to," Erdogan said.

Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, which it is fighting in Syria an extension of the outlawed Kurdish rebels inside Turkey.

The government has cracked on criticism of the offensive, warning that people engaging in "terrorist propaganda" would be prosecuted. As many as 311 people have been detained in the past week for allegedly engaging in "terrorist propaganda" through social media postings critical of the military operation, authorities said Monday.

The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has slammed the detentions as the Turkish government's "witch hunt against critics."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the operation has so far claimed the lives of 61 civilians in Afrin, three in Turkish towns along the border and five Turkish soldiers.

Turkish authorities have cracked down on any expression of dissent over the air and ground offensive against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in Syria's Afrin region. More than 300 people have been detained for social media posts criticizing the campaign since it began 10 days ago. — Agencies