Turkey arrests 119 accused of links to Islamic State

Ankara: Turkey's interior ministry said on Saturday that authorities had arrested 119 people across the country accused of links to the Islamic State group.

"(The) 199 suspects were arrested in a police operation carried out in 30 provinces against the Daesh terrorist organisation," including in Istanbul and Ankara, the ministry said, using another name for the IS jihadist group.

Charges levelled against those apprehended included IS group membership, posting IS propaganda on social media and financing IS through intermediaries or "so-called charities", the ministry said.

In late June, Turkish police killed a man suspected of IS links in an exchange of gunfire in the south of Ankara, two weeks before a NATO summit was held in the capital.

After that, 209 people suspected of links to the IS group or to far-left groups were arrested in Ankara on orders from the city's chief prosecutor.

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© Agence France-Presse