31 suspects detained in ISIL operations across Türkiye

31 suspects detained in ISIL operations across Türkiye

ANKARA
31 suspects detained in ISIL operations across Türkiye

Turkish authorities have detained 31 suspects in a series of operations against ISIL, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on June 24.

"We will give no respite to any of the terrorists," Yerlikaya wrote in a social media post.

The minister said the operations conducted by police forces in Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Istanbul, Mersin and Ordu took place during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha between June 16 to 19.

Türkiye has faced a series of ISIL-linked attacks in recent years, including the one on a Catholic church in Istanbul in January.

Security units have recently apprehended a relative of former ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the central city of Kırşehir.

In a related development in 2023, Turkish intelligence forces killed then-ISIL leader Abu Hussein al-Qurashi in Syria. Al-Qurashi had been appointed as the group's chief in November 2022 following the previous leader's death in a southern Syria operation.