31 suspects detained in ISIL operations across Türkiye

ANKARA

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.