Turkish police on Sunday detained hundreds of suspected members of the ISIL Takfiri group in nationwide raids, just over a month after an attack on an Istanbul nightclub claimed by the terrorists.
Among around 400 detained in the biggest operation so far against ISIL after the New Year attack were foreigners and those suspected of planning attacks in Turkey, the Dogan and Anadolu news agencies reported.
The operation around the country saw 150 suspects detained in Sanliurfa in the southeast and 47 in the nearby city of Gaziantep close to the Syrian border which has a known Takfiri presence, Dogan said.
Sixty suspects, mostly foreigners, were detained in four districts in the capital Ankara.
Dozens more arrests were made in provinces ranging from Bursa in the west to Bingol in the east.
In the usually peaceful Aegean city of Izmir, nine people suspected of travelling to and from Syria and planning attacks in the city were detained, Anadolu said.
Eighteen people were detained in Istanbul and the neighboring province of Kocaeli on suspicion of planning attacks. Another 14 foreigners were due to be deported, including 10 children.
Thirty-nine people were killed, mainly foreigners, on New Year’s night when a gunman went on the rampage inside a plush Istanbul night club.
ISIL claimed the massacre, its first clear claim for a major attack in Turkey although it had been blamed for several bombings in 2016.
Police detained the suspected attacker, Abdulgadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national, on January 16 after over two weeks on the run and authorities say he has confessed to the massacre.
The Hurriyet daily reported after the attack that ISIL also planned a simultaneous New Year’s strike in Ankara but dropped the plot after arrests by the Turkish authorities.
Source: AFP
