Istanbul police detain 26 Daesh suspects in anti-terror operations
| File Photo


Police detained 26 foreign nationals in Istanbul over suspected links to Daesh terrorist group, reports said Wednesday.

The suspects had reportedly been to conflict zones in Syria and Iraq.

The raids were the latest in sweeps of the city, which have netted hundreds of Daesh terrorist suspects in recent months. Those detained include dozens of foreigners, many of them from Syria.

Police in Istanbul's Fatih and Başakşehir districts carried out anti-terror raids on six different addresses.

They confiscated numerous digital materials and documents showing links to the terrorist group.

The suspects were brought to the police station for further inquiry, reports said.Since Daesh's emergence as a terrorist group in war-torn Syria, Turkey has detained over 5,000 Daesh suspects and deported over 3,290 foreign terrorist fighters from 95 countries and refused more than 38,269 individuals' entry to Turkey.

According to Turkey's Justice Ministry, at least 780 people, including 350 foreigners, remain in detention — some of whom have been convicted — for suspected links to the Daesh terrorist group.