New Year's Eve suicide attack plot 'foiled', says Turkey

Turkish police detained two suspected members of the Islamic State militant group accused of plotting suicide attacks in the capital Ankara on New Year's Eve, a government official said Wednesday

MENA

1 min read

The New Arab & agencies

30 December, 2015

Turkey has stepped up its security since the attacks in Ankara in Oct [Getty]

The Ankara chief prosecutors' office says Turkish police have detained two suspected Islamic State militants who were believed to be planning suicide attacks during New Year celebrations in central Ankara.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said Wednesday the two suspects, both Turkish nationals, were detained in a raid on a house in Ankara. The agency, quoting an official from the chief prosecutor's office, says police seized suicide vests armed with bombs.

The agency said the attackers were planning to detonate the suicide vests at two locations during the celebrations. The agency did not say whether the suspects were male or female.

A double suicide bombing blamed on Islamic State killed more than 100 people in Ankara in October, and Turkey has
since stepped up its efforts to tackle the militants.

Turkey has a 900-km (550-mile) border with Syria, some of which is controlled by Islamic State on the Syrian side and has been used as a transit route by would-be jihadists from early on in Syria's civil war.