ANKARA – Turkish authorities Friday detained in Ankara 14 suspectedmembers of the Islamic State (IS) group accused of planning an attack onelections this weekend, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
The 14, all foreign nationals, were detained in simultaneous morning raidson their residences in the capital, the news agency said.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will seek a new mandate as well as aparliamentary majority for his ruling party in Sunday’s polls, which areexpected to take place under tight security.
The report said large amounts of material were seized in the raids. But itgave no details on the nature of the attack’s timing and location, or thenationality of the suspects.
Turkey was in 2015 and 2016 hit by a string of attacks blamed on IS, aswell as Kurdish militants, that claimed hundreds of lives.
The last major attack in Turkey attributed to IS was the New Year massacreby an Uzbek gunman at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul just minutes into2017. The assault left 39 dead. – APP/AFP