ANKARA — Turkey on Tuesday detained 147 people over suspected links to the Islamic State (ISIS), as authorities expand the crackdown on the militant group after its deadly Moscow attack.
Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said that suspects were rounded up in simultaneous raids in 30 provinces across the country.
Yerlikaya said authorities had established that the suspects had either assumed senior positions within the group, were involved in armed clashes in conflict zones where ISIS is active, or were providing funds for the militant group. He didn't provide any further details. Security officials seized a large amount of foreign cash, organizational documents and digital materials during the raids, Yerlikaya added.
Tuesday’s detentions brought the number of people detained in the country to more than 180 since the ISIS branch's attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow last Friday that killed at least 137 people.
From June 2023 to now, Turkey has carried out 1,316 counterterrorism operations against ISIS, according to Yerlikaya. Among a total of nearly 3,000 people who had been detained in these operations, 692 were arrested.
The militant group’s Khorasan branch, ISIS-K, which mostly relies on Central Asian militants — particularly from Tajikistan — claimed responsibility for the attack. Analysts also saw the branch’s involvement in an Istanbul church attack in January due to the involvement of Central Asian militants. The church attack, which left one dead, marked the first ISIS attack in Turkey in seven years.
While Sunday’s operation was conducted in eight different provinces, including Ankara and Izmir, the raids on Tuesday were also extended to Istanbul, Turkey’s largest metropolis; the country’s Kurdish heartland in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir; as well as Adiyaman, a Kurdish majority southeastern province that was once considered one of ISIS’ main recruiting places in Turkey. The province was one of the worst hit by the Feb. 6, 2023, earthquakes that killed more than 55,000 people in 13 provinces.
