ISTANBUL (AFP) – Turkiye arrested over 100 suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) group this week, authorities said yesterday, the latest mass detention targeting the terror organisation.
The country has been hit by several major attacks claimed by IS, including a 2017 shooting that killed dozens of people.
The fresh raids took place across the country, including in the capital Ankara and Turkiye’s largest city Istanbul, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The arrest of 119 people this week follows other mass detentions, including 99 announced in early August.
Since the 2019 collapse of the group, some suspected IS members have settled in Turkiye.
Turkish authorities said that since June 2023 more than 3,600 people with suspected ties to the extremist group have been arrested.
Two of the assailants who massacred 145 people at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow last March, an attack for which IS claimed responsibility, had spent several weeks in Turkiye before heading to Russia, according to local authorities.
