29 March 2016•Update: 30 March 2016
MALATYA/ANKARA
Nearly 700 suspected Daesh members have been detained in nationwide anti-terrorist operations since the beginning of 2016, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency.
A total of 693 Daesh suspects were held over the first three months, with 160 of them being remanded in custody, reports show.
Of the total suspects, 554 were detained between January and February, out of whom 98 were sent back into prison.
As of Tuesday, 139 people have been rounded up in raids conducted in March, with 62 people held on remand.
During the operations, security forces, including police, gendarmerie and border troops also seized a large number of organizational documents, weapons and ammunition belonging to the Daesh terrorist group.
Cross-border air operations
Turkish security forces also conducted airstrikes against Daesh during the same period, killing hundreds of terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
Following the Jan. 12 Daesh suicide attack in Istanbul, about 200 Daesh terrorists were killed in artillery attacks on the group’s positions in Syria and Iraq.
“About 200 Daesh militants, including so-called regional-heads were neutralized [referring to them being killing] within the last 48 hours,” Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Jan. 14.
Davutoglu said Turkish artillery fired more than 500 rounds at the terrorist group’s positions in Syria and Iraq.
The blast at Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district killed 12 people – all German tourists – and wounded 13 others; it was carried out by a Syrian suicide bomber born in Saudi Arabia.
More recently, Turkish jets hit four Daesh positions in northern Iraq on Saturday, following a stray projectile incident that left one Turkish soldier martyred and another wounded at a Turkish military base located in the region.
Turkish General Staff said in a statement that the airstrikes followed an air raid by the international coalition against Daesh in northern Iraq.
"Four terrorist Daesh positions in the north of Iraq have been hit by warplanes of the [international] coalition," the army said.
"Right after, four additional targets were intensively shelled by Turkish Armed Forces planes; the targets were destroyed," it added.
Davutoglu confirmed the strikes were in line with engagement rules in the aftermath of the projectile incident, which came during a gunbattle between Daesh terrorists and Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces on Saturday around the Gedu military base located in northern Iraq. The base is commonly known as Bashiqa.
In addition to the Sultanahmet blast, Daesh has also been linked to a number of other suicide bombings in Turkey; the March 19 attack in Istanbul killed four tourists, including three Israelis and an Iranian.
The last blast in Istanbul also injured 45 others. The bomber was identified by authorities as Mehmet Ozturk, who was born in southeastern Gaziantep province in 1992. Ozturk is suspected of having links with Daesh.
Also, 103 people were killed in the October 2015 attack on a rally in the capital Ankara.
