Turkey detains 13 ISIS suspects planning New Year’s attack: report

“The suspects were allegedly planning terrorist attacks around the time of New Year’s celebrations.”

Kurdistan 24 2019/12/18 09:42

middle east Turkey Islamic State ISIS Syria

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Authorities in Turkey have arrested 13 individuals suspected to be members of the so-called Islamic State, local Turkish media reported on Wednesday.

According to state-run Anadolu Agency, police detained the suspects in the southern Osmaniye province.

“The suspects were allegedly planning terrorist attacks around the time of New Year’s celebrations,” Anadolu Agency quoted security sources as saying.

Authorities conducted “simultaneous raids” at 13 addresses and confiscated “digital materials,” the sources added.

The development comes as Turkey is in the process of sending home foreign fighters in its custody.

Ankara began to repatriate foreign fighters in its custody in early November, especially those with membership in the Islamic State, starting with a US national.

In November, Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu warned that Ankara would return foreign Islamic State detainees to their native countries, even if their citizenship had been revoked.

According to Soylu, Turkey currently has around 1,200 foreign Islamic State members in its prisons, including relatives of the suspects.

“We are not a hotel” for any country’s Islamic State members, he said at the time.

Many nations in the European Union or abroad fear that due to a lack of evidence of criminal wrongdoing, Islamic State supporters could be quickly released once they appear in court after returning home.

Editing by John J. Catherine