Turkey’s interior minister announced that police have detained 357 individuals suspected of being members of ISIS.
Ali Yerlikaya, Turkey’s interior minister, said that the 357 individuals were arrested during a widespread operation against ISIS across 21 provinces, including Istanbul, Konya, Antalya, and Ankara.
The arrests come a day after three police officers and six militants were killed in a shootout in northwestern Turkey.
Yerlikaya wrote on X, “As we have never given those who try to bring this land to its knees through terror any chance, we will never give them one in the future either.”
Earlier, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office reported that police raided 114 locations across the province and two others, seizing various materials and digital documents.
Police engaged in an eight-hour siege of a house in Yalova, south of Istanbul, where they clashed with militants. A week earlier, more than 100 ISIS suspects were arrested for allegedly planning attacks during the Christmas period.
Turkey has stepped up operations against suspected ISIS members this year. The United States previously targeted ISIS in northwestern Nigeria, and Australian police said two armed individuals who attacked a Jewish religious ceremony in Sydney’s Bondi Beach were reportedly inspired by ISIS.
On December 19, the U.S. military carried out airstrikes on dozens of ISIS-linked targets in Syria in response to an attack on American forces.
Nearly a decade ago, ISIS claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on civilian targets in Turkey, killing dozens.
