(Photo: Unsplash/Meg Jerrard)
Turkish police arrested 115 suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members in a series of raids across the country. It is believed the terror group was planning on conducting terror attacks targeting non-Muslims to coincide with Christmas and New Year’s events.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said that it had learned of an ISIS call to action. As a result the prosecutor’s office issued 137 arrest warrants, leading to 115 being taken into custody. The police separately raided 124 locations.
As well as apprehending suspects, the police also found guns, ammunition and organisational documents.
ISIS has long operated a kind of hybrid model of terror attacks. While sometimes it plans and directs attacks in the way al-Qaeda would – as it did with the 2015 Bataclan massacre in Paris – other times it simply provides the inspiration or ideological cover for so-called lone wolf attacks, like the 2017 Westminster Bridge attack.
Following the collapse of the ISIS caliphate, many suspected members are believed to have made their way to Turkey, which shares a 559-mile border with Syria.
In a separate operation, Turkish intelligence operatives captured Mehmet Goren near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Goren, a Turk, is accused of having been an administrator for ISIS responsible for planning suicide attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, and Europe. He is also believed to have worked with Ozgur Altun, who was previously captured by Turkey for his role in transferring ISIS members from Turkey to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions.
Turkey has been the victim of a number of terror attacks claimed by ISIS. Since 2014 there have been at least 20 incidents either claimed by ISIS or suspected to be their work, ranging from minor border clashes to incidents like the 2015 Ankara suicide bombings, in which 109 people were killed.
From 2017 to 2024 there were very few incidents, due mainly to successful action by the Turkish security services, who have arrested thousands and thwarted plots, including planned attacks on churches and synagogues in 2023.
