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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat

20 People Detained in Turkey over Suspected ISIS Links

A Turkish special forces police officer guards the entrance of the Presidential Palace in Ankara. (Reuters file photo)

Turkish police have detained 20 foreign nationals suspected of links to the ISIS group.

The suspects were detained in the capital Ankara by anti-terrorism police, reported the state-run Anadolu Agency on Monday.

There was no immediate information on their nationalities.

They would be handed to immigration authorities for deportation after processing by security officials, Anadolu said.

The sweep came a day after the United States announced that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a US raid in Syria.

It was not immediately clear whether Monday’s detentions were related to Baghdadi’s death.

Turkey was also hit by a wave of attacks in 2015 and 2016 blamed on ISIS and Kurdish militants that killed around 300 people.

In the last major attack, 39 people were killed when a gunman opened fire at an Istanbul nightclub during New Year celebrations in the early hours of 2017. The attack was claimed by ISIS.

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