ORDU/KAYSERI, Turkey

Turkish police arrested 21 people over their alleged links to Daesh/ISIS terror group, officials said on Wednesday.


Provincial anti-terror police and intelligence teams along with special forces conducted simultaneous operations in the Altinordu and Unye districts of northern Ordu province and arrested 10 suspects, all of them Iraqi nationals, said a source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.


The suspects, who were active in various units of the Daesh/ISIS terror group, were rounded up following a six-month-long technical and physical surveillance by anti-terror teams.


The operations were launched as part of an investigation against Daesh/ISIS by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Ordu, the source added.


In the operations, digital materials and a POS (point-of-sale) device of a foreign bank were also seized.


Separately, anti-terror police in the central Kayseri province arrested 11 Daesh/ISIS terror suspects, all of them foreign nations, the provincial governorate said.

In the operation, digital materials were also seized.


In 2013, Turkey became one of the first countries to declare Daesh/ISIS a terror group.


The country has since been attacked by Daesh/ISIS terrorists multiple times, with 315 people killed and hundreds more injured in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks, and four armed assaults.


In response, Turkey launched anti-terror operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks.