News / Turkey

Turkey detains 748 Daesh suspects in nationwide operations

Monday, 06 February 2017 3:46 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 06 February 2017 4:10 PM ]

This photo taken on January 02, 2017 shows a Turkish special force police officer standing guard at Ortakoy district near Reina nightclub in Istanbul. (Photo by AFP)

Security forces in Turkey have raised the number of detained suspects linked to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group to nearly 750 people, says the Interior Ministry.

In a statement published on Monday, the ministry announced that Turkish anti-terrorism police had detained 748 suspects in the initial phase of nationwide operations in 29 provinces over the weekend.

Turkish police seized numerous documents, digital materials, two guns, four rifles and ammunition in the operations, the statement said.

Meanwhile, the state-run Anadolu news agency put the number of detained suspects at 763.

A man looks at a makeshift memorial in front of Reina nightclub in Istanbul on January 17, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The arrests come over a month after a gunman on New Year’s Eve went on a shooting spree inside an Istanbul nightclub, killing 39 people, mostly foreigners. Daesh claimed responsibility for the massacre.

On January 16, police captured the suspected assailant of Reina nightclub, Abdulgadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national, after a two-week manhunt.

Media reports said at the time that Masharipov had also considered attacking Istanbul's main Taksim Square as well as the offices of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper.

A plain-clothes police officer checks a room inside the apartment where the main suspect in Reina nightclub rampage was arrested by Turkish police the night before, in Istanbul on January 17, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The operation against Daesh-linked suspects in Turkey comes as Ankara stands accused of aiding and abetting militant groups operating in Syria against the Damascus government.

According to reports, Ankara actively trains and arms the Takfiri militants in Syria, and facilitates their safe passage into the Arab country. Turkey has also been accused of buying smuggled oil from Daesh.

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