Forty suspects in ‘DAESH’ detained

Turks raid south

ANKARA, Turkey, Dec 30, (Agencies): Turkey’s state-run news agency says police have detained some 40 suspected Islamic State group militants in raids in southern Turkey.

Anadolu Agency says special forces police, backed by armored vehicles and a helicopter, conducted the raids in the city of Adana early on Friday.

Those detained are suspected of membership in the extremist group and of engaging in IS propaganda, the agency said.

Turkey has, since 2015, suffered a wave of deadly bombing attacks carried out either by IS militants or by Kurdish militants.

The country sent troops and tanks into northern Syria in August to support Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters in clearing a border area of the IS group and curbing the territorial expansion of Syrian Kurdish groups.

The Turkish military said on Friday a total of 1,294 Islamic State militants and 306 Kurdish militants had been “neutralised” since the start of Turkey’s incursion into Syria.

In a statement, the Turkish military said 1,171 of the Islamic State militants and 291 of the Kurdish militants had been killed.

Syrian rebels, backed by the Turkish military, have launched an incursion into northern Syria, an operation dubbed as “Euphrates Shield” on Aug 24 to drive Islamic State away from the border area and halt advances of Kurdish YPG