Turkey is increasingly taking action against the terrorist militia “Islamic State”. Now the Turkish Interior Minister announced another success: More than 100 suspected extremists were arrested in a raid.
Turkey has been stepping up its action against the jihadist militia “Islamic State” (IS) for months. Now 147 suspects with alleged ties to IS have been arrested in nationwide raids. Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced this in the online service X. Accordingly, there were raids in 30 cities.
Those arrested are accused of being active within the IS organization, wrote Yerlikaya. They also took part in the group’s armed actions and supported them financially. According to the authorities, there had already been a total of 40 arrests in several provinces on Sunday on suspicion of IS membership.
IS more in focus again
According to the Interior Ministry, Turkey has arrested a total of 2,919 people since June 1, 2023 for suspected links to the jihadist militia.
Since the attack on a concert hall near Moscow last week with more than 130 deaths, IS has come into greater focus again. The Afghan branch ISIS-K (or IS-PK) claimed responsibility for the attack. The background to the arrests could also be that local elections are taking place in Turkey on Sunday.
Uwe Lueb, ARD Istanbul, tagesschau, March 26, 2024 12:24 p.m