Turkey’s Interior Minister, Ali Yerlikaya, announced on Friday that 99 suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group had been detained in recent raids across the country.
The arrests were carried out primarily in Ankara and Izmir, as well as in central, eastern, and southern regions of Turkey, Yerlikaya stated in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“99 suspects have been arrested in the GURZ-4 operations over the past three days,” Yerlikaya confirmed. “We will not tolerate any terrorist,” he added.
Turkish authorities have conducted several mass arrests of alleged IS members in recent years, including the detention of 147 people announced in March.
Following those arrests, Yerlikaya noted that police had detained a total of 2,919 individuals suspected of links to the jihadist group.
In a related incident, local authorities reported that two of the assailants involved in the massacre of 145 people at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow last March, an attack claimed by IS, had spent several weeks in Turkey before traveling to Russia.
AFP
