TURKEY: Turkish anti-terrorism police stand by their armored vehicle during an operation to arrest people over alleged links to the Islamic State group, in Adiyaman, southeastern Turkey, yesterday. —AP

ISTANBUL: Turkish police on Sunday detained hundreds of suspected members of the Islamic State extremist group in nationwide raids, just over a month after an attack on an Istanbul nightclub claimed by the jihadists. Over 400 suspects were rounded up in Turkey's biggest police operation so far against IS since the New Year attack on the Reina nightclub just 75 minutes into 2017 that killed 39. Those detained included foreigners and those suspected of planning attacks in Turkey, the Dogan and Anadolu news agencies reported. Anadolu said according to the latest figure, 423 suspects were detained so far.

The operation around the country saw 150 suspects rounded up in Sanliurfa in the southeast and 47 in the nearby city of Gaziantep close to the Syrian border which has a known jihadist presence, Dogan said. Sixty suspects, mostly foreigners, were detained in four districts in the capital Ankara. Dozens more arrests were made in provinces ranging from Bursa in the west to Bingol in the east. In the usually peaceful Aegean city of Izmir, nine people suspected of travelling to and from Syria and planning attacks in the city were detained, Anadolu said.

One of the suspects detained in Izmir-a Syrian identified only as EA is said to have been in touch with people smugglers in a bid to help the IS members escape to Europe, Anadolu said. Eighteen people were detained in Istanbul and the neighboring province of Kocaeli on suspicion of planning attacks. Another 14 foreigners were due to be deported, including 10 children.

No idea of attack

Thirty-nine people, mainly foreigners, were killed on New Year's night when a gunman went on the rampage inside a plush Istanbul night club. IS claimed the massacre, its first clear claim for a major attack in Turkey although it had been blamed for several bombings in 2016. Police detained the suspected attacker, Abdulgadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national, on Jan 16 after over two weeks on the run and authorities say he has confessed to the massacre. The Hurriyet daily reported after the attack that IS also planned a simultaneous New Year's strike in Ankara but dropped the plot after arrests by the Turkish authorities.

An Istanbul court on Friday placed a dozen people under arrest ahead of trial over the nightclub plot, including Masharipov's wife Zarina Nurullayeva.In her statement to investigators published in Turkish media, she said that she had "no idea" what her husband was planning and "most of the accusations against me are false". Turkey was in 2016 shaken by a string of attacks blamed on IS and Kurdish militants that left hundreds dead. It is also engaged in a battle with IS to take the Syrian town of Al-Bab, in the fiercest fighting yet of the Turkish military's campaign inside Syria that started in August.

At least 48 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the incursion so far, according to an AFP tally, the vast majority in the battle for Al-Bab since the fight for the town began in Dec. Turkey was long accused by its Western allies of not doing enough to stop the flow of jihadists across its borders and emergence of IS cells in its own cities. Ankara denies the charges, saying it listed IS as a terror group since 2013. However observers say Turkey has markedly stepped up its actions against IS in the last months and note that the capture of Masharipov alive may provide it with valuable intelligence.--AFP