Turkish officers catch ISIL suspect sought with red notice among 27 others
ISTANBUL
Turkish law enforcement officials on Jan. 29 caught Demet Taşar, a suspect sought with a red notice from Interpol for links to the Islamic State of Levant (ISIL), the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Taşar, who was on the Interior Ministry’s blue list and sought with a bounty on her head, was one of the 28 terror-linked suspects Turkish officials “neutralized” in the country-wide, week-long operations, the statement said.
While one of the suspects was killed, 21 were captured and six had turned themselves in, according to the ministry.
“Neutralized” is a term used by the Turkish military and officials to indicate militants were either killed, wounded or captured. The ministry ranks those included on the list in five color-coded categories from red (most wanted), to blue, green, orange and grey.
Taşar was on a list among 19 other names, including six females, two of them who are foreign nationals, who have reportedly been plotting suicide bomb attacks. The list was sent out to police stations in all 81 cities, the statement said.
Three of them are thought to be relatives.
In the 819 air and land operations carried out by security personnel between Jan. 22 and Jan. 29, 450 people were also arrested for “aiding and abetting” the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), 59 others were arrested for suspected links to ISIL and another 623 people were arrested for suspected links to the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).
A total of 311 suspects had been arrested so far for spreading “terrorist propaganda” on social media with regards to Turkey’s operation in Syria’s Afrin, the statement read.
The week saw 4,377 detentions with 1,166 of them rounded up for suspected ties to the PKK.
Only 34 were detained for suspected ties to ISIL, the ministry said.
