Meryem Göktaş
01 November 2018•Update: 01 November 2018
By Volkan Kasik
MALATYA, Turkey
Turkish security forces arrested at least 223 Daesh suspects, including senior operatives and foreign nationals, across Turkey in October, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency.
Courts remanded 42 of the suspects in custody following multiple operations carried out mainly in Istanbul, Sakarya, Kilis, Gaziantep and in the Black Sea port city of Samsun.
During operations in the Istanbul, Sakarya, Kilis, Elazig, Yozgat and Samsun provinces, Turkish security forces arrested 22 suspected terrorists, of whom six were remanded in custody.
In central Kayseri seven foreign nationals -- including four women and one with an international arrest warrant -- were arrested for alleged links to Daesh.
One of the suspects was the head of the terror group's so-called "migration and logistics committee" codenamed Abu Jafar.
In separate operations in Gaziantep, Mersin, Sakarya, Cankiri, Kocaeli, Istanbul, Izmir and Nevsehir, Turkish security forces arrested 45 suspected terrorists. Among 26 were remanded in custody.
Additionally, a Turkish court in Kilis sentenced six convicts to six years and three months of jail time -- including British citizen Stefan Samuel Aristidou and Kary Paul Kleman from the U.S.
A court in southeastern Sanliurfa sentenced an Iraqi Daesh member -- in charge of health issues -- with 18 years and eight months.
To date, at least 319 people have lost their lives in Daesh terror attacks in Turkey, where the terror organization has targeted civilians in suicide bombings as well as rocket and gun attacks.
The attacks included twin suicide bombings of October 2015 that saw 107 killed outside Ankara's main train station; a suicide bombing that killed 32 in southeastern Suruc in Sanliurfa province; the Reina nightclub massacre in 2017 in Istanbul on New Year's Eve that killed 39; the targeting of a wedding in Gaziantep in August 2016 by a child suicide bomber who killed 57, many of them children; and a bomb-and-gun attack on Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport in June 2016 that killed 47 people.
