A mega-operation in Turkey led to at least 55 arrests of foreign ISIS militants and made it possible to avoid a terrorist attack scheduled for today, on the day of the National Day for the 94th anniversary of the republic.
Searches and arrests were carried out in Istanbul, Smyrna and Erzurum. Documents, including digital ones, that prove the terrorist network's affiliation with ISIS were seized, as well as two guns, two Kalashnikovs, numerous ammunition and material for making bombs. The investigation started with two suspicious explosions that took place Friday in Istanbul, which, without causing any injuries, made the counter-terrorism suspicious that immediately thought of the attempt to destroy evidence of the transit of ISIS cells. Thus was born the operation that on Saturday evening brought four ISIS militants, including two women, in handcuffs to a shopping center in the metropolis on the Bosphorus where they attempted to escape after parking a car. Police intervened and arrested the suspects, one of whom was shot in the leg while trying to escape. The bomb squad then arrived on the spot, isolated the area and with two controlled explosions revealed the presence in the car of a rudimentary remote-controlled device. The attack was supposed to strike on the occasion of the national holiday of the Turkish republic, which is celebrated today. ISIS had recently struck in Istanbul with the massacre of last New Year in a night where a terrorist had shot madly killing 39 people.