Over 700 Daesh suspects held in Istanbul in 4 months

By Halil Demir

ISTANBUL (AA) - Police in Istanbul have arrested a total of 714 Daesh suspects during counter-terrorism operations from Sep. 1 to Dec. 26, according to security officials.

Istanbul anti-terror police department have conducted over 20 operations across the province to prevent any possible terror incident.

Among the suspects, 670 were foreigners, according to security officials, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

During the same period, a number of planned bomb attacks have been thwarted, they said.

In December, four separate operations across the province saw arrests of more than 100 Daesh suspects.

On Nov. 11, an Istanbul court remanded into custody a group of six people, who were allegedly planning terror attacks on the instructions of Daesh in Syria and Iraq.

On Oct. 28, four Daesh suspects, including two females, were arrested as they attempted to bomb a parking area in a shopping mall in Bayrampasa district of the province.

In another operation on Sep. 10, at least 25 suspects, including three senior Daesh figures, were captured. They were produced before the local court, which remanded them in custody for being members of an armed terrorist organization.

During the operations, many organizational documents were seized in addition to the explosives and guns.

More than 300 people have lost their lives in Daesh-claimed attacks in Turkey so far, where the terror organization has targeted civilians in suicide bombs, rocket and gun attacks. Turkish security forces have been involved in a long-running campaign to thwart Daesh attacks.