Huge ISIS Christmas attack thwarted as 115 suspected terrorists arrested | World | News
One hundred and fifteen suspected ISIS terror plotters have been detained in Turkey. Authorities allege the members of the Islamic State were planning to target Christmas and New Year celebrations in the country.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that authorities received information that the extremist organisation had issued a call to action, particularly against non-Muslims during Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. In a post on X, it said police raided 124 places in Istanbul and arrested 115 of the 137 suspects they were looking for. Pistols and ammo were also seized, according to the prosecutor’s office.
News of the arrests comes after Turkey’s state-run news agency, Anadolu, reported that Turkish intelligence agents captured a senior member of the Islamic State group in an area along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The capture was reported to have thwarted planned suicide attacks in Turkey and elsewhere.
Anadolu said the suspect was identified as Mehmet Goren and a member of the group’s Afghanistan-based Islamic State-Khorasan branch. He was caught in a covert operation and transferred to Turkey.
It was not immediately clear when the operation took place or whether Afghan and Pakistani authorities took part.
The report said the Turkish citizen allegedly rose within the organisation’s ranks and was given the task of carrying out suicide bombings in Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Europe.
IS has carried out deadly attacks in Turkey, including a shooting at an Istanbul nightclub on January 1, 2017, in which 39 people were killed.
Goren’s capture allegedly also exposed the group’s recruitment methods and provided intelligence on its planned activities.
Meanwhile, US efforts to thwart IS ramped up a gear last week after two US service members and an American interpreter were killed in an ambush.
The shooting near Palmyra wounded three other US troops as well as members of Syria’s security forces. The gunman was killed.
The assailant had joined Syria’s internal security forces as a base security guard two months before and had been reassigned because of suspicions he might be affiliated with IS.
He stormed a meeting between US and Syrian security officials as they had lunch together, opening fire after clashing with Syrian guards.
On Friday, December 19, a US official said a “large-scale” strike hit 70 targets across central Syria, which had IS infrastructure and weapons.
Another US official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said at the time that more strikes should be expected.
The strike came after US President Donald Trump pledged “very serious retaliation” after the shooting in the Syrian desert, for which he blamed IS.
IS has not said it carried out the attack on the US service members, but the group did claim responsibility for two attacks on Syrian security forces since then. One of the attacks killed four Syrian soldiers in Idlib province.
