ISTANBUL, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish police on Friday detained 19 people suspected of financing the Islamic State (IS) militant group, Demiroren News Agency reported.
Five more suspects are still on the run in the operations launched across 12 different provinces in the early morning, according to the report.
The Istanbul Attorney General's office carried out the investigation after social media surveillance revealed an IS funding scheme of more than 8 million Turkish liras (460,000 U.S. dollars) that involves more than 900 individual contributors, Demiroren said.
The money was transferred into Syria through suspects moving in and out of Turkey's southernmost border province of Hatay, it added.
The IS is blamed for a spate of deadly attacks in Turkey since 2015. ■
