As of: March 26, 2024, 12:53 p.m
By: Erkan Pehlivan
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More than 140 people are arrested in Turkey who are said to have connections to the IS terrorist militia.
Erdogan reiterates the fight against terrorism.
Ankara - More than 140 suspects with alleged links to the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) have been arrested in nationwide raids in Turkey.
There were 147 arrests in 30 cities, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on the online service X.
Turkey had already stepped up its action against IS extremists before the attack in Moscow.
“Between June 2023 and March 25, 2024, a total of 1,329 operations were carried out against the terrorist organization DAESH (IS).
“2,919 suspects were arrested,” Yerlikaya also said.
According to Erdogan, “external powers” are behind the terrorist organization
A day earlier, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had reaffirmed the fight against terrorist organizations at an election rally in Corum and again blamed external powers.
Erdogan criticized “they” for letting IS into Turkey.
But the Turkish ruler left it open who exactly that should be.
“If any other country had experienced what we have experienced over the past decade, it would not have been able to save itself from collapse, let alone maintain its stability, peace and growth like we have.”
Afghan IS branch behind Moscow terrorist attack
The raids against IS in Turkey follow the terrorist militia's attack on a concert hall near Moscow that left more than 130 dead.
The Afghan branch of the jihadist militia is said to be behind this.
“Based on everything that is known so far, it can be assumed that the terrorist group Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISPK) is responsible for the murderous terrorist attack near Moscow,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) at the weekend.
The IS militia also claimed responsibility for the attack.
Following the attack in Moscow, 147 suspected IS members were arrested in Turkey today.
© IMAGO/Sergey Bobylev
The ISPK counts many defectors from the Taliban ruling Afghanistan among its members.
According to Turkish information, two of those accused of the attack near Moscow had previously been in Turkey and were able to travel to Russia unhindered.
The two Tajiks traveled from Istanbul to Moscow on the same flight on March 2nd and there was no arrest warrant against them, Turkish security circles said on Tuesday.
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Two suspected assassins previously stayed in Turkey
The two men with Tajik citizenship are among eleven suspects who were detained in Russia after the attack.
On March 22, an armed commando entered the fully occupied Crocus City Hall in the northwest Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk and opened fire there.
According to the latest information, 139 people were killed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed “radical Islamists” for the crime for the first time on Monday.
However, he again suggested that they may have had ties to Ukraine.
The government in Kiev denies any involvement in the attack.
On Sunday, the Russian judiciary ordered two months of pre-trial detention for four suspects, including the two men who had apparently previously been in Turkey.
Two of them pleaded guilty, the court said.
(erpe/dpa/AFP)