14 Daesh members plotting Istanbul attacks captured

Storming residential buildings in nine districts of Istanbul early Friday, police captured 14 suspects linked to the terrorist group Daesh. Suspects, including 13 foreigners, were planning to carry out attacks in the city, media outlets reported. The nationalities of foreign suspects were not revealed. Police also found digital propaganda material in possession of suspects for Daesh.

On Marh 9, Istanbul police captured 21 Daesh militants, foiling potential attacks. The terrorist group is responsible for several attacks in Istanbul as well as other cities. In June 2016, three Daesh militants killed 45 people in an armed attack followed by suicide bombings at the city's Atatürk Airport. Last year, during New Year's celebrations, a Daesh militant killed 39 people at a popular nightclub on the Bosporus shore. The militant was captured alive in Istanbul's Esenyurt district a few weeks later.

Amid fears that Daesh militants who fled Syria could hit Europe and Turkey, authorities have heightened crackdowns on the terrorist group with almost daily operations. Though Daesh lost a number of its strongholds in Iraq and Syria, a controversial deal, between Daesh and Syrian terrorist groups linked to the PKK that carry out attacks against Turkey, facilitated their safe evacuation from Raqqa, Syria.

Turkey has stopped thousands of people from trying to enter Syria to join the group over the past few years. It is now concerned with militants fleeing Iraq and Syria following the fall of the terrorist group. The country has so far stopped more than 5,800 foreign Daesh recruits on its borders and arrested some 10,000 members of the terrorist group in continuous operations.