Turkey detains 35 Islamic State suspects

Turkish police detained people suspected of ties to the Islamic State militant group in an operation targeting a total of 35 foreign suspects in Istanbul on Thursday, state-owned Anadolu news agency reported.

It said the counter-terror squad police carried out simultaneous raids on 34 addresses in 14 districts of the city after receiving intelligence about possible militant attacks over the New Year period.

Prosecutors in the capital Ankara ordered the arrest of a further 15 suspects in another Islamic State-related investigation, Reuters reports citing Anadolu.

Turkey has imposed a lockdown from 9 p.m. on Dec. 31 to 5 a.m. on Jan. 4 as part of measures to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Police have rounded up alleged jihadist militants in late December in the last two years, since New Year’s Day in 2017 when a gunman killed 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub in an attack claimed by the militant group.