Police carried out simultaneous raids to 23 addresses in Istanbul’s conservative Fatih district detaining suspects from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Azerbaijan.

Turkish counter-terror police detained 40 foreign nationals in raids in Istanbul over their suspected links with ISIS, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Sunday.

Police carried out simultaneous raids to 23 addresses in Istanbul’s conservative Fatih district detaining suspects from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Azerbaijan, Anadolu said.

Some suspects are identified as having gone to the conflict areas inside Syria several times, Anadolu said.

Turkey has suffered a series of suicide bombings and attacks by ISIS and Kurdish militants over the past year. It launched its first major military incursion into Syria last month to push extremists away from its border and prevent Kurdish fighters from seizing territory as they retreated.

At least seven suspected suicide bombings across Turkey since July 2015, which have killed more than 250 people, have been blamed on ISIS.

A network of suspected Turkish ISIS militants is responsible for at least two of the attacks, Turkish prosecutors have said in legal documents, while foreign members of the group were accused of being behind the suicide bombing at Istanbul Ataturk airport in June.

[vuukle]

Related articles across the web

• U.S.-led coalition planes hit Islamic State in north Syria: Turkish military
• 2 Turkish Soldiers Killed in Clash With IS Fighters in N. Syria
• Turkey backtracks on 'ISIS group child bomber' claims. No clue who was behind the attack
• Turkey fires into Syria, in response to Gaziantep
• Islamic state claims suicide bomb in Syria's Hasaka city - Amaq
• Turkey strikes IS as Syria border tensions flare
• Turkey pounds Islamic State targets just inside Syria border before key assault
• Suicide bombing shows how Turkey's Kurds are getting hit from all sides
• IRAN: Mythmaker, Mythmaker Make Me A Myth
• Azerbaijan to ease passing through its checkpoints