By Volkan Kasikci
MALATYA, Turkey
A total of 408 Daesh suspects were remanded in custody while some 3,000 others were arrested for their alleged links to the terror group across Turkey in 2018.
Turkish security forces continued its long-running nationwide campaign to thwart Daesh attacks throughout last year.
Timeline for Turkey’s fight against Daesh in 2018 is as follow:
January
A total of 93 suspects were remanded in custody during anti-Daesh operations.
A Daesh member, identified by the initials S.S., was remanded in custody in Turkey’s western Kocaeli province.
February
A total of 17 suspects were remanded in custody during anti-Daesh operations.
A Daesh member, identified by the initials A.A.H., were remanded in custody in Kocaeli, while five others were put behind bars in southern Mersin province.
Meanwhile, a local court in central Kirsehir province sentenced a Daesh member to eight-years-and-nine months in prison.
A total of 17 Daesh members, who were plotting a terror attack, were nabbed in the capital Ankara.
March
Police arrested 245 suspects in March operations; 51 out of total were remanded in custody.
A Syrian national, known by the initials M.K., and a Daesh suspect, identified by the initials U.H., were remanded in custody after an operation in southeastern Sanliurfa province.
April
While Turkey continued its fight against Daesh in cross-border operations, the country also conducted anti-terror operations inside the country.
A total of 28 members were remanded in custody and a vast amount of ammunition, as well as explosives material, were seized during operations conducted in May.
Russian nationals, identified by the initials A.M. and M.M., were arrested in southern Hatay province.
May
A total of 29 people, including senior Daesh members, were remanded in custody.
Four senior members were imprisoned in western Izmir province.
Another 10 people were jailed in southeastern Gaziantep province.
June
Some 210 suspects were arrested, 22 of whom were remanded in custody on charges of membership in Daesh terror group.
Security forces arrested 51 foreign nationals in an operation in Istanbul.
During simultaneous operations in 11 provinces, 15 people, including Iraqis and Syrians, were remanded in custody.
In Ankara, 14 suspected Daesh members, who were preparing a terror attack, were held.
July
A total of 31 people were remanded in custody.
The suspects included a woman identified as Seda D. -- the spouse of Tarkan Batirashvili, a top Daesh operative also known as Abu Omar Al- Shishani who was killed in Iraq -- and an Uzbek national identified only by the initials N.U., who was detained while trying to flee Turkey.
Separately, 43 suspects were arrested as part of an Istanbul-based operation.
Three people were handed down nine years in prison in the Black Sea province of Kastamonu on charges of terror group membership.
August
Security forces arrested 94 Daesh suspects; 23 of them were put behind bars for being a terror group member.
A total of 52 suspects, including 38 foreigners, were arrested during operations in Istanbul and Kocaeli.
September
A total of 20 Daesh members, including Eyup. B., reportedly the group's most senior operative in the southern province of Adana province, remanded in custody.
Eyup B. was rounded up in a brief police hunt after he was spotted outside a private hospital in Adana.
October
Police arrested 223 suspects during operations conducted in October; 42 were remanded in custody.
Two terrorists were jailed in southern Kilis province after having arrested near border.
November
A total of 37 Daesh members, including foreign nationals, were remanded in custody.
A southeastern Diyarbakir court remanded in custody 15 Daesh terrorists.
A Daesh member, identified by the initials V.A., was remanded in custody in southern Hatay province.
Separately, in the Black Sea province of Trabzon, a so-called senior Daesh member and his wife were arrested. While his wife was released, the husband was remanded in custody.
A total of 24 suspects were held during simultaneous operations in 11 provinces as part of an investigation launched by Diyarbakir Prosecutor’s Office.
The suspects are accused of transferring money to the terror group in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Indonesia, and Libya.
December
A total of 13 people were remanded in custody.
A Daesh suspect, known by the initials A.G., was remanded in custody by an Adana court.
Investigations revealed A.G. had fought on behalf of the Al-Qaeda terror group in 2011 in Chechnya and came to Turkey in 2013 after being sought with an arrest warrant in his country.
Aysenur Inci, a terrorist on the wanted listed of Turkey’s Interior Ministry, surrendered to security forces on Dec. 15 at the Habur border gate on the Turkey-Iraq border.
Inci had been involved in terrorist activities as a Daesh member in Turkey's southeastern Adiyaman province before she went to Syria to join the terror group's activities there.
