Turkey Detains over 250 Suspected Militants as Warplanes Bomb ’ISIL’ Targets in Syria

Local Editor

Turkey on Friday detained 251 people in coordinated nationwide dawn raids against suspected "ISIL" extremists and Kurdish militants following a wave of deadly violence in the country, the prime minister's office said.

"A total of 251 people were taken into detention for belonging to terrorist groups," the statement said, adding that the raids took place in 13 provinces across Turkey.

It said that the arrests had been made following violent attacks against members of the public and the armed forces in recent days.

Reports said police raided addresses in several Istanbul districts in search of members of "ISIL", the Kurdistan Workers Party [PKK] and other militant groups.

The Dogan news agency said that 140 addresses were raided in 26 districts in Istanbul alone, in a giant operation involving some 5,000 police.

The raids came after 32 people were killed in a suicide bombing Monday in a Turkish town on the Syrian border, blamed on "ISIL".

This sparked an upsurge in violence in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, where many accuse the Turkish authorities of collaborating with "ISIL", accusations Ankara denies.

Turkish fighter jets early Friday bombed positions of Islamic State jihadists inside Syria for the first time, in a dramatic escalation of fighting after the killing of a Turkish soldier in cross-border clashes.

This comes as three Turkish F-16s took off from the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir for an early morning bombing raid against three "ISIL" targets, dropping four guided bombs, a statement from the prime minister's office said.

The operation came after the first major cross-border clashes between Turkey and "ISIL" terrorists on Thursday left one Turkish soldier and one militant dead.

The decision to launch the Turkish air force's operation was taken at a meeting of security officials in Ankara late Thursday chaired by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

"In this context.... an operation was carried out against targets belonging to Daesh inside the Syrian border," the statement said, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

"Three of our F-16s hit... three targets belonging to Daesh," it said, adding that "the government of the Turkish Republic is determined to take the necessary measures to protect national security".

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team