ISTANBUL (AP/Anadolu) — Turkish police have arrested 15 people for alleged links to the Daesh terrorist group, the country’s official news agency said late Saturday.
Anadolu news agency, sourcing an Istanbul police statement, said the group was detained for purportedly planning attacks on the Swedish and Dutch Consulates in Istanbul as well as on churches and synagogues. But the police added they couldn’t ascertain any “concrete threats” against the locations.
The intelligence that led to the police operation stated that the group may have received instructions from an affiliate of Daesh called Daesh-Khorasan Province, which is active in South Asia and Central Asia.
Sweden and the Netherlands have been the subject of angry protests in Turkey after an anti-Muslim activist burned the Muslim holy book in Stockholm. and a similar action took place in The Hague.
This week, a group of Western countries temporarily closed down their consulates in Istanbul over security concerns. Turkish government officials accused them of failing to share information on the security threat that led to the closures and of aiming to cause harm to Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkish security forces “neutralized” three PKK terrorists in northern Iraq, the National Defense Ministry said on Saturday, Anadolu reported.
The terrorists were targeted in the Operation Claw-Lock zone, the ministry said in a statement.
“We are determined to eradicate terrorism at its source,” it added.
Turkish authorities use the term “neutralize” to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.
PKK terrorists have hideouts in northern Iraq, across the Turkish border, which they use to plot attacks on Turkey.
Turkey launched Operation Claw-Lock last year in April to target the terrorist group PKK’s hideouts in the Metina, Zap, and Avasin-Basyan regions of northern Iraq, located near the Turkish border.