Turkish police detain hundreds in anti-IS operation

Associated Press

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s anti-terrorism police have detained more than 440 people involving purported links to the Islamic State group, the state-run news agency reported Sunday.

The Anadolu Agency said 60 suspects, the vast majority of them foreigners, were taken into custody Sunday in the capital, Ankara.

It said a total of 445 people were detained in simultaneous pre-dawn police operations that spanned several cities, including Istanbul and Gaziantep, near the border with Syria.

The largest operation was in the southeast province of Sanliurfa, where police took into custody more than 100 suspects from multiple addresses and found materials relating to Islamic State militants.

Security forces also apprehended nine suspects who were purportedly preparing an attack in the northwestern city of Izmir.

Anadolu did not give the nationalities of all those detained, but there were 10 minors among the foreigners detained in Istanbul and the northwestern province of Kocaeli.

Turkey, which last year endured a failed coup attempt and dozens of bloody attacks linked to IS or Kurdish militants, has been stepping up its anti-terrorism efforts.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a New Year’s Eve mass shooting at an Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people. It claims to have multiple cells in Turkey.

Turkey is a member of the NATO alliance and the U.S-led coalition against IS.