Sources said that the operation was ongoing and further arrests are to be expected.
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The raids on the locations of ISIL cells took place in Konya, Kocaeli and Istanbul, with 30, 14 and 21 suspects detained respectively, the Anadolu Agency said. “Work to identify [militants] and to uncover their connections in other cities is still under way”.
On Monday, the provincial governor’s office showed off the arsenal of weapons and explosives captured by police during the operation, including two Kalashnikov assault rifles, eight pistols, a hunting rifle, military-grade explosives, ammonium nitrate and hand grenades. Clothing and shoes were strewn about.
Two policemen who died while storming a suspected Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group cell in a city in southeast Turkey were killed by a suicide bomber, Turkish authorities said on Tuesday.
The crackdown comes amid heightened tensions in Turkey just days ahead of Sunday’s election in the aftermath of the country’s worst ever bomb attack and a resumption of hostilities between Ankara and Kurdish rebels.
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Last week, President Tayyip Erdogan, said Syrian intelligence and Kurdish militants as well as IS, were behind the attack on a rally of pro-Kurdish activists and civic groups.
