Turkey Police Detain 16 Daesh Militants Plotting Terror Attack in Ankara

Turkish police detained in Ankara and its suburbs 16 people suspected of being linked to the Islamic State (ISIL, or Daesh) militant group and of plotting a terror attack in Turkey’s capital, local media reported, citing a source in local law enforcement.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Local police detained 15 Syrians and one Turkish citizen, the leader of the group, the Anadolu news agency said Tuesday.

According to the source, the detainees were conducting surveillance and searching for potential targets of a terror attack.

The anti-terror raid follows a deadly blast in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Tuesday morning, which claimed the lives of 10 people and injured 15 more.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the incident a terrorist act, adding that it was perpetrated by a Syrian suicide bomber.