957 suspected ISIL militants caught in February in Turkey

Some 957 suspected militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were apprehended in security operations carried out across Turkey in February. Some 122 militants were arrested, while security forces seized ammunition, weapons, documents and explosive materials, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported. 

The police, gendarmerie and border units continued their operations against the jihadist group last month. In simultaneous operations carried out mostly in the early hours of the day, some 957 militants were caught. 

In an anti-ISIL operation carried out in 29 provinces on Feb. 5, 748 people were detained and a total of 820 suspects were detained during that week. 

In an operation conducted in the northwestern province of Bursa, 13 foreign-origin militants were arrested over their links to the Jan. 1 ISIL attack on a nightclub at the heart of Istanbul, which claimed a total of 39 lives and left 65 others wounded. 

Among the arrested was the wife of Abdulgadir Masharipov, the gunman who carried out the armed attack on the Reina nightclub, charged with "attempting to remove the constitutional order" and "being a member of an armed terrorist organization." 

Masharipov was arrested on Feb. 11 over several charges, including "attempting to remove the constitutional order," "being a member of an armed terrorist organization" and "killing more than one person."

In the northern province of Kastamonu, 11 people were arrested over their links to the jihadist group. In another operation carried out in some 84 addresses in Istanbul, the Black Sea province of Samsun, the southeastern province of Gaziantep and the western province of Manisa, six people were arrested. 

In Gaziantep, four suspects who were...