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ISTANBUL — Istanbul police launched scores of simultaneous raids on Thursday, detaining over 100 suspected members of the militant Islamic State group who have been allegedly planning assaults towards Christmas and New 12 months’s celebrations, authorities stated.
A press release from the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Workplace stated police have been tipped off that the extremist group had referred to as for motion — notably towards non-Muslims — in the course of the celebrations.
The workplace had issued warrants for 137 suspects, of whom 115 have been detained. Officers additionally seized many firearms, cartridges and paperwork in the course of the raids. It stated 124 places have been raided.
The arrests come days after the Trump administration launched widespread army strikes in neighboring Syria to “remove” Islamic State fighters and weapons’ websites in retaliation for an ambush blamed on the group that killed two US troops and an American civilian interpreter.
Syrian safety forces have additionally launched operations towards IS in current days, together with two raids on the outskirts of Damascus, the Syrian capital.
In these raids, Syrian officers stated Taha al-Zoubi, recognized because the IS chief within the Damascus space, was captured and Mohammed Shahadeh, a senior IS commander in Syria, was killed.
High Turkish officers visited Syria earlier this week to debate counterterrorism efforts towards IS, amongst different points.
At its peak in 2015, IS managed a swath of territory throughout Iraq and Syria half the dimensions of the UK.
It was infamous for its brutality towards spiritual minorities in addition to Muslims who don’t observe the militants’ excessive interpretation of Islam.
After years of preventing, the US-led coalition broke the group’s final maintain on territory in late 2019, however IS cells in a number of international locations proceed to hold out periodic assaults.
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