Ongoing political unrest and terror attacks are familiar to Turkish residents. However, accelerating violence — including the assassination of a Russian ambassador by a rogue Turkish cop and a nightclub mass shooting, in which a terrorist killed dozens — has prompted the government to make major crackdowns against the Islamic State. ABC News reveals how a series of Sunday morning anti-terrorism raids ended in the arrest of 445 people by Turkish security forces.
Multiple alleged ISIS cells were infiltrated by authorities in these simultaneous raids. When all was said and done, Turkish State TV (via ABC News) reports that the capital city of Ankara yielded the arrests of 60 suspects with the bulk of the remaining arrests happening in Sanliurfa (where over 150 were arrested), Istanbul, and Gaziantep. Of those arrested, nine were reportedly close to carrying out a terror attack in Izmir.
A majority of those who were detained are foreigners with ISIS connections. Many of them are suspected of Islamic State recruitment efforts and have participated in active combat zones. The Independent reveals how significant these raids were in terms of the sheer quantity of arrests. In only a few hours, Turkey more than doubled the number of suspected ISIS terrorists in custody to 780 total detainees.
(Via ABC News & The Independent)