27 January 2017•Update: 28 January 2017
ISTANBUL
Turkish police late on Friday arrested 17 suspected Daesh members, including several foreign nationals, as part of an anti-terror operation in Istanbul.
Anti-terrorist teams raided seven addresses of a suspect -- identified only by the initials K.T. -- who is accused of housing suspected foreign Daesh members.
Police said 15 of the suspects held in the Istanbul district of Zeytinburnu were foreign nationals who would be deported.
Elsewhere in Turkey on Friday, a number of Daesh suspects were either arrested or remanded to stand trial on anti-terror charges.
An Ankara court remanded in custody five suspected Daesh members.
In the southeastern providence of Gaziantep, three suspected Daesh members were also remanded in custody on Friday, the local governorship confirmed in a statement.
Gaziantep governorship said the suspects were accused of planning suicide attacks which would have targeted Turkish soldiers travelling to join Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria.
Earlier on Friday, police in Turkey’s northern Samsun province detained three Iraqi nationals -- believed to be brothers -- on terror charges.
The three men were later transferred to Sakarya province in western Turkey, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The brothers were charged with being members of an armed terrorist organization and are also accused of making bombs.
Turkey has taken steps to crack down on Daesh since 2014 when the terror group launched a series of suicide bombings in the country.
Separately, Turkey has also been conducting Operation Euphrates Shield, which began late August 2016 to improve security and eliminate the terror threat from Daesh as well as other terrorist groups along Turkey’s border with Syria.
Reporting by Halil Demir and Adsiz Gunebakan; Writing by Handan Kazanci
