Turkish authorities have detained 115 suspected Islamic State members they said were planning to carry out attacks on Christmas and New Year celebrations in the country.
Istanbul's chief prosecutor's office revealed this on Thursday 25 December, a day set aside by Christians worldwide to celeberate Christmas.
Police said they obtained information that Islamic State members had planned attacks in Türkiye, against non-Muslims in particular, during Christmas and New Year celebrations.
In a statement released on X, the chief prosecutor's office said that the arrests were a culmination of investigations carried out by the anti-terror department.
“Information was found that the ISIS Armed Terrorist Organisation was planning to carry out actions targeting our country, especially non-Muslim individuals, within the scope of the upcoming Christmas and New Year events,” the statement said.
“They were in contact with conflict zones within the scope of terrorist organisation activities,” it added.
Around 124 places were raided by the Police in Istanbul, capturing 115 of the 137 suspects they were seeking, the statement said.
Authorities added that they were still pursuing about 24 individuals who remain at large, noting that the detained suspects had arrest warrants issued against them in Türkiye and internationally.
This latest development comes days after Turkish intelligence officials captured a senior administrator within the Islamic state organisation.
The individual named as Mehmet Gören, was aprehended in the Afghanistan - Pakistan border region.
Operating under codename 'Yahya', he was assigned to carry out suicide attacks against civillians in Türkiye, Europe, Pakistan and Afghanistan according to security sources.
Wall Street ended sharply lower on Tuesday as investors worried about AI creating more competition for software makers, keeping them on edge ahead of ...
Small Cirrus SR 20 crashed in Littleborough, Rochdale, after taking off from Birmingham Airport...
President Donald Trump on Tuesday (February 3) said the U.S. is negotiating with Iran "right now," after Tehran demanded that planned talks be held in...
A second group of Palestinian medical evacuees arrived in Egypt from Gaza via the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday (February 3), the second day since ...
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Kyiv is waiting for a response from the United States after overnight Russian attacks dam...
The U.S. military says an F-35 shot down an Iranian drone that approached the Abraham Lincoln carrier in the Arabian Sea on Tuesday, in an incident reported by Reuters.
The Turkish Competition Authority carried out an early-morning raid on online retailer Temu’s Istanbul office on Wednesday (21 January), the regulator and a company spokesperson said, as scrutiny of the Chinese-owned platform’s business model intensifies.
A technical incident occurred between the ASCO-owned tanker Kalbajar and the Turkish-flagged tanker Alatepe in waters off Istanbul, according to the Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping Closed Joint-Stock Company (ASCO).
Türkiye–Azerbaijan trade and investment talks at the 12th meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission (JIC), held in Baku on 22–23 December, are being framed as a key moment in efforts to expand bilateral economic cooperation.
Heavy snow continued to batter northern and western Japan on Saturday (31 January) leaving cities buried under record levels of snowfall and prompting warnings from authorities. Aomori city in northern Japan recorded 167 centimetres of snow by Friday - the highest January total since 1945.
The United States accused Cuba of interfering with the work of its top diplomat in Havana on Sunday (1 February) after small groups of Cubans jeered at him during meetings with residents and church representatives.
Talks with the U.S. should be pursued to secure national interests as long as "threats and unreasonable expectations" are avoided, President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X on Tuesday (3 February).
Early voting for Thailand’s parliamentary elections began on Sunday (1 February), with more than two million eligible voters casting ballots nationwide ahead of the 8 February general election, as authorities acknowledged errors and irregularities at some polling stations.
At least 12 people were killed and seven wounded after a Russian drone struck a bus carrying miners in Ukraine's southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, government officials said on Sunday (1 February).
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday and discussed the situation in Ukraine, including the overnight Russian attacks on the country, the UK government said.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday (3 February) signed a spending deal into law that ends a partial U.S. government shutdown and gives lawmakers time to negotiate potential limits on his immigration crackdown.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met on Tuesday (February 3) with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar one day after the U.S. and India signed a trade deal that slashes U.S. tariffs on Indian goods.
Small Cirrus SR 20 crashed in Littleborough, Rochdale, after taking off from Birmingham Airport
President Donald Trump on Tuesday (February 3) said the U.S. is negotiating with Iran "right now," after Tehran demanded that planned talks be held in Oman not Türkiye, and that the scope be narrowed.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment