Turkey raises number of ISIS suspects detained to 750 as it carries out sweeping raids across 29 cities following spate of attacks
Large-scale anti-terror operation underway after spate of deadly attacks
AUTHORITIES in Turkey have revised the number of ISIS suspects detained in a major sweep against the death cult upwards to 748.
A massive security operation has been launched against jihadis in 29 Turkish cities, including in Istanbul, Ankara and in the border cities of Gaziantep and Sanliurfa.
ISIS claimed responsibility for a New Year's mass shooting at an Istanbul nightclub that killed 39 people.
It claims to have multiple cells in Turkey.
More than 440 people were initially said to be detained in the crackdown launched yesterday.
But in a statement released this morning Turkey’s Interior Ministry raised the number of suspects detained to 748.
It did not provide any further details on the nationalities of the suspects.
The suspected members of the murderous group include non-Turkish nationals and some suspected of planning attacks.
The nationwide operation saw 150 suspects detained in Sanliurfa, in the southeast of the country, while 60 were detained in the capital Ankara.
Dozens more were arrested in provinces ranging from Bursa in the west to Bingol in the east.
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The arrests in Ankara come just a month after an attack on an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Eve that killed 39 people.
Abdulkadir Masharipov, the suspected gunmen of Uzbek nationality, was apprehended two weeks afterwards with responsibility for the attack claimed by ISIS.
Authorities say that Masharipov has confessed to carrying out the massacre at the Reina nightclub.
State-run media reports that those held were mainly foreign nationals but didn't say if they were necessarily linked to any suspected plot.
The suspects were rounded up in simultaneous raids on the Sincan, Cubuk, Yenimahalle and Mamak districts of the capital.
During a visit to the Middle Eastern nation two weeks ago Theresa May agreed a £100million deal with the Turkish President Erdogan to develop fighter jets.
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