The nationwide raid followed a major clash in the northwestern city of Yalova, where three police officers and six suspected militants were killed during an eight-hour standoff.
What do we know about the latest raids on IS in Türkiye?
In a post on Platform
“This morning, across 21 provinces, we captured 357 suspected ISIS members in a simultaneous operation carried out by our police.”
“Just as we have never given an opportunity to those who tried to bring this motherland to its knees through terrorism till date, we will never give them an opportunity in the future too!”
Why has the raid taken place now?
The shooting in Yalova on the coast of the Sea of Marmara was part of a wider operation on Monday in which security forces targeted more than 100 locations across the country.
The confrontation spilled over into the streets, closing five schools in the area and cutting off natural gas and electricity supplies as a precaution.
More than 100 suspected Islamic State members had already been detained last week over alleged plans to carry out attacks during Christmas and New Year celebrations, officials said.
Turkey has stepped up operations against suspected Islamic State fighters this year. The group was blamed for a series of deadly attacks on civilian targets nearly a decade ago, including attacks on an Istanbul nightclub and the city’s main airport that killed dozens.
Türkiye was once a major transit route for foreign fighters traveling to and from Syria. While only a limited number of attacks have occurred since the wave of violence between 2015 and 2017, police have continued to conduct regular operations against suspected IS cells.
Edited by: Sam Dusan Inayatullah
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