Istanbul, 30 December 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Police in Turkey have arrested 189 people suspected of being Islamic State extremists in raids across 37 cities and provinces, officials said on Saturday.

The detentions come a day after Ankara said it thwarted planned Islamic State attacks on synagogues and churches in Turkey, which has in the past witnessed several deadly terrorist attacks linked to the extremist group.

Police raided addresses Istanbul and the capital, Ankara, among other cities, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on social media platform X, sharing images of alleged Islamic State operatives being handcuffed in their apartments in night raids.

A day earlier, Turkish officials said they had arrested 32 suspected Islamic State members allegedly involved in plotting an attack on the Iraqi embassy. The nationalities of the detained and the details of the purported attack plans were still unclear.

The so-called Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a 2017 Istanbul nightclub attack, which killed 39 New Year's Eve revellers. Ankara has since been routinely targeting Islamic State suspects.

Photo: MIA archive