Türkiye has detained 41 suspects tied to the Daesh terrorist group in raids across 12 provinces, according to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on Wednesday.
In a post on social media platform X, Yerlikaya said police had seized suspects who were found to have been active within Daesh.
Police also seized several unlicensed pistols, lots of digital materials and large amounts of cash in both foreign currencies and Turkish lira as part of the operations, the minister said.
The raids, starting in Istanbul, spanned from western Bolu, Sakarya, Kocaeli to central Nevşehir, Eskişehir and southeastern Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa provinces.
Türkiye has been rounding up Daesh-linked suspects in ramped-up operations since the terrorist group attacked an Italian church in Istanbul in late January, killing one man during Sunday Mass.
Between June 2023 and April 22, Turkish authorities detained a total of 2,991 suspects tied to Daesh and 718 among them were remanded in custody, Yerlikaya recently announced.
Daesh operates a so-called Khorasan Province (Daesh-K) network in Türkiye, which looks for "new methods" and recruits more foreign members for its activities after constant counterterrorism operations became a "challenge," security sources say.
The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) thwarted the terrorist group's efforts for recruitment, obtaining funds and logistics support after its latest operation in the aftermath of the church shooting.
Daesh remains the second biggest threat of terrorism for Türkiye, which faces security risks from multiple terrorist groups and was one of the first countries to declare it as a terrorist group in 2013.
In December last year, Turkish security forces detained 32 suspects over alleged links with Daesh, who were planning attacks on churches and synagogues, as well as the Iraqi Embassy.
Daesh extremists have not previously targeted places of worship on Turkish soil, but they have carried out a string of attacks, including against a nightclub in Istanbul in 2017 that left 39 people dead and a 2015 bombing attack in Ankara that killed 109.
Terrorists from Daesh and other terrorist groups, such as the PKK and its Syrian wing, the YPG, rely on a network of members and supporters in Türkiye.
In response, Ankara has been conducting pinpoint operations and freezing assets to eliminate the terrorist groups at their roots. Türkiye deported 9,000 foreign terrorist fighters, mainly from Daesh, from 102 different nationalities, of which 1,168 were from the U.S. or EU member countries, since 2011.
