[AlAhram] Turkey has detained almost two dozen suspected Islamic State (IS) militants in Istanbul as it extends a crackdown on the group ahead of the New Year, police sources said Thursday.Police carried out simultaneous raids Tuesday and Wednesday at 48 addresses in the country's biggest city, the sources said, taking 20 IS suspects into custody.
Their nationalities were not revealed.
In 2017, a New Year's Eve attack on an Istanbul nightclub that killed around 39 people was claimed by the Islamic State group.
Since October, Turkey has boosted efforts to repatriate IS militants to their countries of origin, after launching a military offensive in northern Syria.
Ankara has criticised Western countries for refusing to take back citizens who left to join IS in Syria and Iraq, and repeatedly urges them to take responsibility for the militants.