Security forces raided at least six addresses and arrested numerous suspected members of the Daesh terrorist group in southeastern Turkey's Adana province, a security source told Anadolu Agency (AA) Wednesday.
Counter-terrorism teams, with the help of special operations teams, carried out operations to arrest suspects on allegations of being linked to the terror group, said the source on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
Some of those who were arrested were taken to police headquarter after a medical check in the provincial forensic science institution.
In 2013, Turkey became one of the first countries to declare Daesh a terrorist group.
The country has since been attacked by the terrorist group multiple times, with over 300 people killed and hundreds more injured in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks and four armed assaults.
In response, Turkey launched anti-terrorist operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks.
Turkey detained Daesh's so-called “Turkish emir,” Mahmut Özden, in August. He was planning to carry out an attack on the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque and target politicians, nongovernmental organization (NGO) heads and other prominent figures in Turkey, according to the official investigation.
Police deciphered Daesh's encrypted messages sent by the terrorist group's ringleaders in Syria and Iraq, which featured a wide range of instructions, including kidnapping tourist groups, prosecutors and deputies, and attacking the Incirlik Air Base in Adana, as well as other plans.
Moreover, a Turkish court sentenced four terrorists to aggravated life imprisonment over the 2016 deadly Daesh bombings in Istanbul last month.
The convicts – Atala al-Hasan al-Mayouf, Fawzi Mohamed Ali, Halil Derviş and Ahmed al-Hasan – got multiple sentences totaling over 328 years in prison.
They were handed 192 years each for helping Nabil Fadli who blew himself up, 128 years for "assisting attempted murder" against 16 people, and eight years and four months for keeping dangerous goods without permission.
Fadli blew himself up on Jan. 12, 2016, killing 12 people – mostly German tourists – and injuring 16 others in Istanbul's Sultanahmet district on the European side of Istanbul in a Daesh terror attack.
