In latest crackdown against Islamic State Turkey detained Sunday 448 suspects from nationwide raids and is said to be the country’s biggest police operation against the jihadist group that claimed responsibility of an attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul about a month before that killed 39 people.
Confirming the number the state-run Anadolu news agency said most of the arrested are foreigners and were suspected of planning attacks in the country.
Even though several bombings of last year were blamed to have been the acts of ISIS but the group claimed for the first time the recent nightclub attack.
Earlier, on January 16, Turkish police detained Uzbek national Abdulgadir Masharipov on suspect ground after more than two weeks on the run.
In 2016 the country was hit by several attacks and Kurdish militants were also blamed apart from the ISIS by Turkish government.
Turkey is also engaged in a direct combat with the jihadist group in Syrian town of Al-Bab. About half ton Turkish soldiers have been killed so far. The fight began in December.
Ankara has listed ISIS as terror group in 2013.
Turkey shares borders with Syria and Iraq, and both are war-torn nations. The country is also a member of the NATO alliance as well as US-led coalition against the ISIS.
