ANKARA, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police detained at least 47 suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) across five provinces, the country's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Wednesday.
The suspects were detained in the country's largest city Istanbul, the capital Ankara, along with the provinces of Kirikkale, Adana, and Bursa, Yerlikaya said on social media platform X, without specifying the time of the operations.
A total of 1,162 operations have been carried out against the IS since June 1 last year, during which a total of 2,402 suspects were caught, he added.
The Turkish government designated the IS as a terrorist organization in 2013 and blamed it for a spate of deadly attacks in the country since 2015.
In December last year, Turkish intelligence and security forces captured a top IS terrorist in charge of the group's finances in an operation in Türkiye's southeastern province of Mersin.
Türkiye's southern border with Syria has been a significant crossing point for Syrians and foreign fighters since the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011. ■
