Turkey arrests IS suspects ahead New Year

ISIS-Soldier

ISIS-Soldier

ISIS-Soldier

No less than 70 people suspected to have ties to Islamic State in nationwide raids have been arrested by the Turkish police early on Monday ahead of New Year celebrations, state media reports.

The arrest happened two months after the killing of the group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Donald Trump of the United States of America announced on Oct. 27 that Islamic State leader Baghdadi had been killed in a raid by U.S. Special Forces in northwest Syria, near the Turkish border.

Two days later, Turkish police detained dozens of Islamic State suspects believed to have been plotting attacks targeting celebrations of Turkey’s Republic Day celebrations. The government has said it will have repatriated most of its Islamic State detainees to their home countries by the end of the year.

Counter-terror police ramped up intelligence activities and carried out the operations in the central provinces of Ankara, Kayseri, and Adana, and Batman in the southeast, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported.

Some 400 police officers took part in a 5 a.m. (0200 GMT) operation in Batman on Monday, detaining 22 people in simultaneous raids on various addresses, also seizing weapons, ammunition, and documents, Anadolu said.

Ankara had accused its European allies of being too slow to take back their citizens who traveled to the Middle East to join Islamic State.

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