Turkey deals heavy blow to Daesh in June

By Volkan Kasik

MALATYA, Turkey (AA) - Turkish security forces arrested at least 174 Daesh suspects across Turkey in June, including senior operatives and foreign nationals.

Courts remanded 31 of the suspects in custody following multiple operations carried out mainly in Istanbul, southeastern Sanliurfa, and in the Black Sea port city of Samsun.

In Istanbul alone, 33 Daesh suspects were rounded up, including 28 foreigners.

During operations in Istanbul, Sanliurfa, Nevsehir, Adana, and Elazig, Turkish security forces arrested 52 suspected terrorists, of whom 29 were remanded in custody.

In the Black Sea cities of Samsun, Zonguldak, and the northwestern city of Yalova, 24 Daesh suspects were arrested.

The suspects included a woman identified as Seda D. -- the spouse of Tarkan Batirashvili, a top Daesh operative also known as Abu Omar Al- Shishani who was killed in Iraq -- and an Uzbek national identified only by the initials N.U., who was detained while trying to flee Turkey.

To date, at least 319 people have lost their lives in Daesh terror attacks in Turkey, where the terror organization has targeted civilians in suicide bombings as well as rocket and gun attacks.

The attacks included twin suicide bombings of October 2015 that saw 107 killed outside Ankara's main train station; a suicide bombing that killed 32 in southeastern Suruc in Sanliurfa province; the Reina nightclub massacre in 2017 in Istanbul on New Year's Eve that killed 39; the targeting of a wedding in Gaziantep in August 2016 by a child suicide bomber who killed 57, many of them children, and a bomb-and-gun attack on Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport in June 2016 that killed 47 people.