Istanbul officials on Thursday announced they detained 115 suspected members of ISIS who were planning terror attacks in Turkey aimed at mostly non-Muslim people at Christmas and New Year events, such as the Christmas mass at Saint Antuan Church pictured in 2022. File Photo by Erdem Sahin/EPA
Dec. 25 (UPI) — Police in Turkey detained 115 people on Thursday suspected of planning to stage terror attacks at Christmas and New Year’s Day celebrations in the country.
The Istanbul Provincial Police Department, on instruction from the city’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, carried out 124 raids targeting 137 suspected members of ISIS, officials said in a press release.
“These suspects were identified as being in contact with conflict zones within the scope of terrorist organization activities,” the prosecutor’s office said in a press release posted to X.
The suspects, prosecutors said, were “planning attacks and issuing calls for action targeting our country — specifically aimed at non-Muslim individuals — within the context of upcomin