A total of 1,746 terrorists have been neutralized by Turkish security forces in 2018, including some 107 so called-high ranking officials, the interior ministry announced Monday.
The ministry said that within the last year, 130,640 internal security operations were conducted by the members of Security General Directorate, Gendarmerie General Command and the Turkish Armed Forces members along with the Gendarmerie Special Operation, Police Special Operation and Gendarmerie Commando Units. Some 96,745 of these operations were launched in rural areas, 599 of which were full or medium scaled, while 33,895 of the operations were carried out in the cities.
Under these operations, a total of 75,239 people were arrested over aiding and abetting terrorism and having ties with terrorist organizations. While 19,185 of them were arrested over having links to the PKK terrorist organization or its affiliates in Syria and northern Iraq, approximately 52,000 of them were arrested over having links to the Gülenist Terror Organization (FETÖ), the group behind the failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt and over 3,000 were arrested for having links to Daesh.
Among 1,746 terrorists who were neutralized within the last year, 107 of them were on the interior ministry's most wanted list. Some 519 terrorists surrendered to the security forces, the ministry said.
During the operations, 1,287 shelters belonging to the terrorists were destroyed. A total of 2,075 weapons, including heavy armor and long barreled weapons were captured, while 1,647 hand grenades, 23 tons of explosives and 836 improvised explosive devices (IED) were seized.
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said that Turkish security forces will continue to fulfill their responsibilities and fight terrorism as well as narcotics.
Some 203,287 people were detained and 22,815 were arrested under the scope of operations targeting the trafficking and manufacturing of narcotics last year.
