Turkey detains 357 Islamic State suspects nationwide after deadly clash

ISTANBUL, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Turkish police detained 357 suspects in a nationwide operation against Islamic State on Tuesday, the interior minister said, a day after three police officers and six militants were killed in a gunfight in northwest Turkey.

  Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said authorities carried out raids in 21 provinces across the country.

“Just as we have never given an opportunity to those who try to bring this country to its knees with terrorism, we will never give them an opportunity in the future either,” he said on X.

Earlier, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office had said police raided 114 addresses in Istanbul and two other provinces, and various digital materials and documents were seized.

Police clashed with the militants on Monday in an eight-hour siege at a house in the town of Yalova, on the Sea of Marmara coast south of Istanbul, a week after more than 100 suspected IS members were detained in connection with alleged plans to carry out Christmas and New Year attacks.

Eight police officers and another security force member were wounded in the raid on that property, which was one of more than 100 addresses targeted by authorities on Monday.

Turkey has stepped up operations against suspected IS militants this year, as the group returns to prominence globally.

The U.S. says it carried out a strike against the militants in northwest Nigeria last week, while two gunmen who attacked a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach this month appeared to be inspired by IS, Australian police have said. On December 19, the U.S. military launched strikes against dozens of IS targets in Syria in retaliation for an attack on American personnel. 

Almost a decade ago, the jihadist group was blamed for a series of attacks on civilian targets in Turkey, including gun attacks on an Istanbul nightclub and the city’s main airport, killing dozens of people. Turkey was a key transit point for foreign fighters, including those of IS, entering and leaving Syria during the war there.

Police have carried out regular operations against the group in subsequent years and there have been few attacks since the wave of violence between 2015-2017.

(Reporting by Daren Butler and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Saad Sayeed and Sharon Singleton)