Turkey arrested three suspected Islamic State suicide attack plotters

Turkey’s interior ministry said Tuesday it had arrested three suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group members in the northwest of the country who were planning a suicide attack, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Anti-terrorist officers arrested three foreigners in the northwestern city of Bursa on suspicion of belonging to ISIL and planning a suicide attack.

Their nationalities were not given.

Several attacks in Turkey in 2015 and 2016 were claimed by ISIL or attributed by Ankara to the jihadist group.

In January 2016, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the historic heart of Istanbul among a group of German tourists, killing 12 of them.

The Turkish authorities said the bomber was a 28-year-old Syrian ISIL member, but the jihadist group has not formally claimed responsibility.

ISIL claimed responsibility for an attack on an Istanbul nightclub during New Year celebrations that killed 39 people in 2017.

Source: Turkish Minute