Turkish police detain 10 accused of Islamic State links, minister says

Turkish police detained 10 people believed to be linked to Islamic State and have arrested five of them, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Friday.

Yerlikaya said Turkey's MIT intelligence agency, police, and counter-terrorism squads carried out an operation in the western coastal city of Izmir after intelligence showed the suspects had hidden supplies in the city.

The authorities discovered explosive gels, materials used to make explosives, as well as weapons and ammunition hidden in the mountainous region of Izmir's Bornova district, Yerlikaya added.

"As a result of the operation, 10 suspects were detained. Of these, five were arrested and judicial control rulings were made for five others," the minister said on social media platform X, formerly called Twitter.

Under judicial control rulings, the suspects may leave police detention but they have certain conditions and oversights imposed on them.

Footage from the operation, shared by Yerlikaya on X, showed several police cars in a mountainous area, with police searching inside of a small cave for the hidden materials. It also showed authorities searching a house and detaining the suspects. Reuters could not independently verify the footage.

Islamic State has conducted numerous attacks across Turkey, including on a nightclub in Istanbul on 1 January 2017, in which 39 people were killed. Turkish police have carried out several operations targeting the militants.

(Reuters)