Turkish forces nab 51 ISIL suspects over past 4 days

ANKARA

Turkish security forces have captured 51 suspects having links to the ISIL terrorist organization over the past four days in operations in 21 cities, including the capital Ankara and Istanbul, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has announced.

In a post on the social media platform X on March 31, Yerlikaya said 10 suspects were detained by Ankara police, and another three were apprehended in Istanbul as part of the crackdown dubbed as “Bozdoğan-18.”

Stating that a large number of documents and digital materials related to the terrorist group were seized during the operations, Yerlikaya added that operations against ISIL will continue with determination.

The operations come after the group's claim of responsibility for an attack on a Moscow concert hall that claimed over 130 lives.

On the incident, Turkish sources earlier said that two of the four ISIL-K gunmen who carried out the bloody terrorist attack in Moscow had stayed in Istanbul for a short time in the previous months, but they did not become radicalized during their stay in Turkish territory.

Türkiye has faced a series of ISIL-linked attacks in recent years, including a 2017 nightclub shooting in Istanbul that left 39 people dead.