 in a series of operations across 13 provinces, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on X on Thursday.){kind=link}
Turkish authorities have detained 72 people suspected of having ties to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in a series of operations across 13 provinces, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on X on Thursday.
The operations, named “GÜRZ-1,” were coordinated by the Turkish police’s intelligence and counterterrorism branches. They were conducted in İstanbul and Ankara as well as other provinces across Turkey.
“We will not allow terrorists any respite. Our sole objective is to neutralize the last terrorist without pause or hesitation,” Yerlikaya said.
During the operations, authorities seized a substantial amount of foreign and Turkish currency along with numerous digital materials, according to Yerlikaya.
In a related development, a Turkish indictment revealed that an ISIL militant who orchestrated a deadly attack in Kabul had traveled from Turkey to Afghanistan, according to an exclusive report by the Artı Gerçek news website. The December 2022 attack, which killed three people, was linked to a Tajik national known by the code name “Culaybi.” This information surfaced in a training video produced by ISIL for militants, detailing war strategies.
The indictment, drafted by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, did not previously include the Kabul hotel attack but detailed Culaybi’s involvement in a March 2022 attack on a Shia mosque in Pakistan. The attack in Pakistan killed 45 people and injured hundreds.
Further investigations revealed that Turkey had become a transit hub for ISIL militants heading to Afghanistan. The Afghan branch of ISIL, also known as ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K), used the country as a staging ground for attacks, including plans to target churches, synagogues and consulates.
In recent years, Turkish authorities have detained numerous ISIL suspects in various operations. In July 2023, 12 members of ISIL-K were detained in İstanbul’s Başakşehir district. Among them, Solekh Umarov, a Tajik national returned to İstanbul after being deported to Dubai and traveling to Ukraine, to plan attacks on a Catholic church.
ISIL attacks in Turkey have claimed hundreds of lives since the group was declared a terrorist organization in 2013. High-profile attacks include the 2017 nightclub massacre in İstanbul and multiple bombings that have killed 315 people and injured many more.
ISIL continues to pose a significant threat globally. The group claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall in March that killed 137 people. The suspects detained by Russian authorities were Tajik citizens, indicating a potential link to ISIL-K.