Turkish police have detained a suspected Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant who was allegedly planning to attack a police station, The Associated Press reported on Thursday, citing local media.
The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that the suspect, identified only by the initials M. A., was detained in an operation in the district of İnegöl in northwestern Bursa province. Police seized a suicide vest and other explosive material, according to the report.
The suspect was being monitored by police following five separate arson attacks on businesses in İnegöl in the past two months, Anadolu reported.
Anadolu said the suspect had entered Turkey illegally two years ago and had carried out acts on behalf of the ISIL group in Syria between 2017 and 2018.
Turkey has suffered a string of attacks by ISIL militants over the last five years, including an attack on an Istanbul nightclub during New Year’s celebrations in the early hours of 2017. The attack killed 39 people, most of them foreigners.