Turkey detains 18 foreign IS suspects in Istanbul

Turkish police on Thursday launched simultaneous operations against suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) in Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul, and detained at least 18 foreign nationals, local media reported.

The Istanbul Police Department’s Counter-Terrorism Unit teams went all out to raid about 20 homes across the city to capture the suspects, who were allegedly linked to the IS, the Hurriyet daily said.

It said one of the raided addresses was approximately 500 meters from the U.S. Consulate General in the Sariyer district on the European side.

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The nationalities of those targeted in the operations were not immediately clear.

Many organisational documents and digital materials were also seized during the search at the addresses.

The IS had been blamed for a spate of deadly attacks in Turkey since 2015.

The Turkish counter-terrorism units had launched operations against IS members in the country. (NAN)