Turkish security forces stepped up nationwide operations against the ISIS terrorist organisation on 30 December, arresting 357 suspects in a total of 21 provinces across the country, including Istanbul, after three police officers were killed in a shootout during an operation against terrorists in Turkey‘s northwestern province of Yalova.
Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced this morning that the arrests took place in simultaneous operations targeting jihadist terrorism. As reported by the daily Hürriyet, the arrests were carried out in the provinces of Adana, Ağrı, Ankara, Antalya, Bingöl, Çorum, Denizli, Erzincan, Gaziantep, Giresun, Istanbul, Kastamonu, Kilis, Konya, Muğla, Niğde, Osmaniye, Şanlıurfa, Şırnak, Yalova and Van. “Just as we have never allowed those who try to bring this country to its knees through terrorism until now, we will not allow them to do so in the future either,” Yerlikaya stressed.
In Istanbul alone, 110 people were arrested. The authorities said that those arrested in the city had links with the terrorists who clashed with the police during yesterday’s operation in Yalova, in which 3 policemen and 9 terrorists were killed during a shootout.
The detainees were preparing attacks on New Year’s Eve and against non-Muslims
Investigations have revealed that some of the detained suspects were preparing attacks on New Year’s Eve and New Year and against places of worship, while others are accused of organising illegal religious groups to recruit members for the organisation. During the searches, police seized several long-range rifle sights, air guns, bullet cartridges and bladed weapons, including swords, machetes, daggers and knives.
The intensified anti-terror operations follow an armed clash on 29 December in Yalova, some 90 kilometres south of Istanbul, where ISIS members opened fire on a group of police officers on their way to search a house on the outskirts of the city, sparking a gun battle that lasted several hours and left three officers dead and eight others wounded. Special units from the neighbouring province of Bursa had to be sent as reinforcements to the area, which remained cordoned off for hours and from which civilians were evacuated.
Turkish police had already carried out dozens of simultaneous raids last week in which they arrested 115 suspected members of the extremist group who were planning attacks on Christmas and New Year celebrations, especially against foreigners and non-Muslims. In a separate operation organised by Turkey’s intelligence services, the National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) captured a major ISIS terrorist on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border: a Turkish national who was reportedly planning to carry out attacks in Europe.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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