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
Trump says he asked Putin not to target Kyiv for 1 week during brutal cold spell
- “I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this ... extraordinary cold,” Trump said
- Zelensky, for his part, thanked Trump for his effort and welcomed the “possibility” of a pause
KYIV: US President Donald Trump said Thursday that President Vladimir Putin has agreed not to target the Ukrainian capital and other towns for one week as the region experiences frigid temperatures.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Kremlin that Putin has agreed to such a pause.
Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, hoping to wear down public resistance to the war while leaving many around the country having to endure the dead of winter without heat.
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this ... extraordinary cold,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, adding that Putin has “agreed to that.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked earlier Thursday whether a mutual halt on strikes on energy facilities was being discussed between Russia and Ukraine, and he refused to comment on the issue.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky late Wednesday had warned that Moscow was planning another large-scale barrage despite plans for further US-brokered peace talks at the weekend.
Trump said he was pleased that Putin has agreed to the pause. Kyiv, which has grappled with severe power shortages this winter, is forecast to enter a brutally cold stretch starting Friday that is expected to last into next week. Temperatures in some areas will drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit), the State Emergency Service warned.
“A lot of people said, ‘Don’t waste the call. You’re not going to get that.’” the Republican US president said of his request of Putin. “And he did it. And we’re very happy that they did it.”
Zelensky, for his part, thanked Trump for his effort and welcomed the “possibility” of a pause in Russian military action on Kyiv and beyond. “Power supply is a foundation of life,” Zelensky said in his social media post.
Trump did not say when the call with Putin took place or when the ceasefire would go into effect. The White House did not immediately respond to a query seeking clarity about the scope and timing of the limited pause in the nearly four-year war.
Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat and running water over the course of the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukrainian officials describe the strategy as “weaponizing winter.”
Last year was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since 2022 as Russia intensified its aerial barrages behind the front line, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country.
The war killed 2,514 civilians and injured 12,142 in Ukraine — 31 percent higher than in 2024, it said.
