Turkish police arrested ISIS terrorist cell in the city of Adana

Police in Adana arrested 10 suspected members of the terrorist organization ISIS yesterday.

The suspects were reportedly planning an attack during the May 1 celebrations. Some 250 counterterrorism unit officers carried out the raid on the safe house early in the morning, detaining four Turkish and six Syrians nationals.

The safe house in the city’s Yeşilbağlar neighborhood had “God does not love the unbeliever” written on its walls and had video cameras on all four sides.

Speaking about the arrests, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said the government wanted the May 1 celebrations across the country to be held in a peaceful and cheerful manner. He said the operation in Adana should be seen in that light too.

“Turkey last year prevented around 700 potential attacks. Many attacks have been prevented this year as well,” he said.

The main May Day rally in Istanbul will be held at the Maltepe Square located on the city’s Asian side, as agreed by the authorities and relevant labor bodies.

Daesh is responsible for several attacks in Istanbul as well as other cities. In October 2015, it called 109 people in a twin bomb attack in the Turkish capital Ankara. In June 2016, three Daesh militants killed 45 people in an armed attack, followed by suicide bombings at Istanbul Atatürk Airport. Last year during the new year’s celebrations, a Daesh militant killed 39 people at a popular nightclub on the Bosporus shore. The militant was captured alive in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district a few weeks later.

Though Daesh lost a number of its strongholds in Iraq and Syria, a controversial deal between Daesh and Syrian terrorist groups linked to the PKK, which carry out attacks against Turkey, facilitated their safe evacuation from Raqqa, Syria.

Turkey shares a lengthy border with war-torn Syria and struggles against infiltration, despite a giant border wall currently being built. The country is at the forefront of efforts to quell threats from the terrorist group, which partly depends on foreign recruits for fighters.

Turkey has stopped thousands of people from trying to enter Syria to join the group over the past few years. It is now concerned about the militants fleeing Iraq and Syria following the fall of the terrorist group. The country has so far stopped more than 5,800 foreign Daesh recruits on its borders and arrested some 10,000 members of the terrorist group in continuous operations.

Source: Daily Sabah