Muzahim Zahid Tuzun, Selman Tur and Fatih Mehmet Kurkcu
December 30, 2019•Update: December 30, 2019
ANKARA/KAYSERI/BATMAN/SAMSUN/ADANA/BURSA, Turkey
The Turkish police held 147 suspects allegedly linked to the Daesh/ISIS terror group across Turkey, said security sources on Monday.
Anti-terror operations against Daesh/ISIS have risen ahead of New Year's Eve, the sources said, asking not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
Operations in the capital Ankara, have been initiated to capture 50 other foreign nationals over alleged ties to terrorist organizations in the conflict zones abroad.
Also, 30 Iraqi citizens, two Syrians and a Moroccan were arrested during operations on Monday morning.
After their health controls, the terrorists were sent to the anti-terror branch directorate.
Police is on the lookout for suspects.
Separately police in the central Kayseri province arrested nine Iraqi nationals in simultaneous operations over their terror activities in Iraq and Syria, said the sources who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
In a separate operation, security forces in the eastern Batman province arrested 22 suspects including the terror group’s head of the city.
In the northern Samsun province, 14 Iraqi nationals were also arrested by the police forces of the province.
Police officers in the southern Adana province arrested six suspects including four Syrian and two Iraqi origins.
Also, in the western Bursa province since Dec. 23, police officers arrested 16 suspects including 13 Syrian nationals over their links to the Daesh/ISIS terror group.
In Turkey’s metropolitan Istanbul, police arrested 24 suspects, including four foreign nationals during operations early Monday.
In separate operations, police arrested 11 suspects in the southern Hatay province and another four out of 12 detained suspects in the southeastern Gaziantep province.
During the operations, weapons, ammunition, digital materials and organizational documents were also seized.
Turkey recognized Daesh/ISIS as a terrorist organization in 2013.
Since then, the country has been attacked by Daesh/ISIS terrorists numerous times. They include 10 suicide bombings, seven bombings and a total of four armed attacks which killed 315 people and injured hundreds.
In response, Turkey has launched military and police operations inside the country and abroad to prevent terrorist attacks.
* Writing by Havva Kara Aydin and Dilara Hamit
