12 ISIL suspects detained by police in Turkey’s Bursa
BURSA/GAZİANTEP
DHA photo
Some 12 suspected militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been detained in an anti-terror operation in Turkey’s northwestern province of Bursa, with police sources suggesting that the number of detainees may increase.Addresses in Bursa’s Nilüfer, Yıldırım and Osmangazi districts were raided in a simultaneous operation launched late on May 24 when police detained 12 suspected ISIL militants.
The militants were in contact with other ISIL members in Syria, sources said, and the number of detainees may increase in the coming days.
Meanwhile, a separate operation was launched in the southeastern province of Gaziantep against a possible cell house believed to have been used by ISIL militants.
Anti-terror police, with support from special operations police, raided a home in the Dolambaç Street of the Şahinbey district’s Türktepe neighborhood on May 25, as part of an investigation carried out by the public prosecutor’s office.
No criminal evidence was found in the house, while a luxury land vehicle with an Austrian plate number was seized for investigation.
According to reports, the information that led to the operation was gathered during the interrogation of Hacı Ali Durmaz, the brother of Yunus Durmaz, an ISIL militant who had been sought by police with a reward of up to 4 million Turkish Liras until he blew himself up during a police operation.
Hacı Ali Durmaz was also being sought by the police but with a lower reward of up to 1.5 million liras.
The interrogation of Durmaz, his wife Nasibe Durmaz, and 10 other ISIL militants led to new information on the jihadist organization’s cells in Gaziantep, prompting the police to step up its operations.
Eleven of the 12 suspects were arrested by a local court, while the other was released with a judicial control decision.
The suspects are accused of planning attacks on the G-20 summit in Antalya, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) building in Istanbul, daily Cumhuriyet’s building in Ankara, Expo 2016 in Antalya, a football match between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe in Istanbul, tourism activities in Cappadocia, May 19 Youth and Sports Day celebrations, and the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) extraordinary congress on May 22.
