Turkey arrests 99 suspected Islamic State members

Turkey’s interior minister said Friday that 99 suspected members of the Islamic State jihadist group had been detained in recent raids across the country.

The arrests were made mainly in Ankara and in Izmir in the west, as well as in the centre, east and south, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya posted on X.

“99 suspects have been arrested in the GURZ-4 operations over the past three days,” Yerlikaya said.

“We will not tolerate any terrorists,” he added.

Turkish authorities have made several mass arrests of alleged IS members in recent years, most recently a roundup of 147 people announced in March.

After those arrests, Yerlikaya said police had detained a total of 2,919 people suspected of links to the jihadist group.

Two of the assailants who massacred 145 people at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow last March, an attack for which IS claimed responsibility, had spent several weeks in Turkey before heading to Russia, according to local authorities.