Türkiye has detained 33 suspects tied to the Daesh terror group who were allegedly preparing attacks ahead of the local elections later this month.
The suspects were “preparing and searching for action before the upcoming local elections,” Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Sunday on X, formerly Twitter. Nationwide elections are due to be held on March 31.
Counterterrorism police in Sakarya in northwest Türkiye recovered weapons, cash and “organizational documents” during raids.
“We will not tolerate any terrorists. We will continue our fight uninterruptedly with the superior efforts of our security forces,” Yerlikaya said.
The network was providing personnel for war zones and financial support for Daesh while operating from illegal mosques and religious schools, he said.
Türkiye has ramped up operations against Daesh terrorists after the group attacked an Istanbul Church in late January, killing a civilian man during Sunday mass.
Daesh operates a so-called Khorasan Province (Daesh-K) network in Türkiye, which looks for new “methods” and recruits more foreign members for its activities after constant counterterrorism operations became a “challenge,” security sources say.
The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) thwarted the terrorist group’s efforts for recruitment, obtaining funds and logistics support after its latest operation in the aftermath of the church shooting.
Daesh remains the second biggest threat of terrorism for Türkiye, which faces security risks from multiple terrorist groups and was one of the first countries to declare it as a terrorist group in 2013.
In December last year, Turkish security forces detained 32 suspects over alleged links with Daesh, who were planning attacks on churches and synagogues, as well as the Iraqi Embassy.
Daesh extremists have not previously targeted places of worship on Turkish soil, but they have carried out a string of attacks, including against a nightclub in Istanbul in 2017 that left 39 people dead and a 2015 bombing attack in Ankara that killed 109.
Turkish airstrikes also target hideouts of Daesh in northern Iraq and Syria near the Turkish border.
Terrorists from Daesh and other groups such as the PKK and its Syrian wing, the YPG, rely on a network of members and supporters in Türkiye. In response, Ankara has been conducting pinpoint operations and freezing assets to eliminate the terrorist groups at their roots. Türkiye deported 9,000 foreign terrorist fighters, mainly from Daesh, from 102 different nationalities, of which 1,168 are from the U.S. or the European Union member countries, since 2011.
In the past nine months, Turkish police also arrested 656 Daesh terrorists in countrywide operations and prevented 19 attack attempts, according to figures from Yerlikaya’s office.
