ISTANBUL: Turkish authorities have detained 43 people suspected of belonging to Daesh and of plotting attacks targeting celebrations of Turkey’s national day on Tuesday, police and state media said.
The detentions came two days after US President Donald Trump announced that Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi had been killed in a raid by US special forces in northwest Syria, near the Turkish border.
The suspects were detained in Istanbul and the northwestern province of Bursa in three separate operations, according to a police statement and the state-run Anadolu news agency.
Three of the suspects who were believed to have been preparing an attack to disrupt Republic Day celebrations in Istanbul, were detained on Tuesday, Anadolu said.
It said anti-terror and intelligence units established that the suspects had been in contact with people who would provide logistic support for the attack.
Anadolu said another 26 suspected Daesh members were detained in Bursa on Tuesday. It said 12 of them were Syrian nationals and that proceedings were underway to deport them. The other 14 suspects were sent to the police, it added.
Turkish police later said a further 14 suspected extremists, three of them Turkish nationals, were detained in Istanbul. It said the suspects were planning to attack the celebrations in Istanbul following Al-Baghdadi’s death, but did not elaborate.
Turkey has said it shared information with the United States, its NATO ally, ahead of Sunday’s raid in northern Syria and that it is proud to have helped bring “a notorious terrorist to justice.”
On Tuesday Turks were marking the 96th anniversary of the founding of the secular Turkish republic on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.
Trump said on Tuesday the US military had also killed the person who would likely have succeeded Al-Baghdadi as the leader of Daesh, without identifying him.
Daesh has carried out atrocities against religious minorities and attacks on five continents in the name of an ultra-fanatic version of Islam that has horrified mainstream Muslims.
The death of Baghdadi is a severe blow to the group, which has been in disarray and has no declared successor as leader yet. But it has in the past proved resilient, continuing to mount or inspire attacks in the region and beyond despite losing most of its territory in recent years.
Turkey detains 43 suspected Daesh members, foils plot: police
Turkey detains 43 suspected Daesh members, foils plot: police
- The suspects were detained in Istanbul and the northwestern province of Bursa in three separate operations
Australian bushfires raze homes, cut power to tens of thousands
- PM Anthony Albanese said the nation faced a day of “extreme and dangerous” fire weather, especially in Victoria, where much of the state has been declared a disaster zone
SYDNEY: Thousands of firefighters battled bushfires in Australia’s southeast on Saturday that have razed homes, cut power to thousands of homes and burned swathes of bushland. The blazes have torn through more than 300,000 hectares (741,316 acres) of bushland amid a heatwave in Victoria state since the middle of the week, authorities said on Saturday, and 10 major fires were still burning statewide. In neighboring New South Wales state, several fires close to the Victorian border were burning at emergency level, the highest danger rating, the Rural Fire Service said, as temperatures hit the mid-40s Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit). More than 130 structures, including homes, have been destroyed and around 38,000 homes and businesses were without power due to the fires in Victoria, authorities said. The fires were the worst to hit the state since the Black Summer blazes of 2019-2020 that destroyed an area the size of Turkiye and killed 33 people. “Where we can fires will be being brought under control,” Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan told reporters, adding thousands of firefighters were in the field.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the nation faced a day of “extreme and dangerous” fire weather, especially in Victoria, where much of the state has been declared a disaster zone.
“My thoughts are with Australians in these regional communities at this very difficult time,” Albanese said in televised remarks from Canberra. One of the largest fires, near the town of Longwood, about 112 km (70 miles) north of Melbourne, has burned 130,000 hectares (320,000 acres) of bushland, destroying 30 structures, vineyards and agricultural land, authorities said. Dozens of communities near the fires have been evacuated and many of the state’s parks and campgrounds were closed. A heatwave warning on Saturday was in place for large parts of Victoria, while a fire weather warning was active for large areas of the country including New South Wales, the nation’s weather forecaster said. In New South Wales capital Sydney, the temperature climbed to 42.2 C, more than 17 degrees above the average maximum for January, according to data from the nation’s weather forecaster.
It predicted conditions to ease over the weekend as a southerly change brought milder temperatures to the state.
