Nationwide raids
147 IS suspects arrested in Turkey
March 26, 2024, 11:19 a.m
Turkey has been increasingly taking action against the Islamic State jihadist militia for months. In the last nine months, more than 2,900 people were arrested. Now the investigators are striking in 30 cities at the same time.
More than 140 suspects with alleged links to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist militia have been arrested in nationwide raids in Turkey. There were 147 arrests in 30 cities, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on the online service X. According to the authorities, there had already been a total of 40 arrests in several provinces on Sunday on suspicion of membership in IS.
Turkey has been stepping up its action against IS extremists for months. According to the Interior Ministry, a total of 2,919 people have been arrested since June 1, 2023 for suspected links to the jihadist militia.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the attack on a concert hall near Moscow that left more than 130 dead as a “heinous terrorist attack.” The Afghan IS branch claimed responsibility for this. “Terrorism is unacceptable, no matter where it comes from and who the attackers are,” Erdogan said at the weekend. Turkey shares Russia’s suffering, he added. “We will continue to fight against terror, the common enemy of humanity.”
Turkey is one of the NATO countries most closely linked to Russia. Erdogan often speaks on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has repeatedly offered to mediate in the war between Russia and Ukraine. In Syria, however, the two countries are on different sides. There, Russian troops are fighting alongside the Syrian army against Islamists, including IS. Turkey has carried out several military operations in northern Syria since 2016, primarily targeting the Kurdish militia YPG. The Turkish military controls border areas there and supports, among other things, the Syrian National Army (SNA), which consists of several groups.