ISIS
ISISReuters

Turkey has detained almost two dozen suspected Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Istanbul as it extends a crackdown on the group ahead of the New Year, police sources said Thursday, according to AFP.

Police carried out simultaneous raids Tuesday and Wednesday at 48 addresses in the country's biggest city, the sources said, taking 20 ISIS suspects into custody.

Turkey has been hit by several terrorist attacks carried out by ISIS over the past two years, including a New Year's Eve attack on an Istanbul nightclub in 2017, in which 39 people were killed by an ISIS gunman.

In the days following the Istanbul attack, Turkish police detained almost 450 suspected ISIS members around the country.

In October, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed that his country captured the wife of former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an operation in June of 2018.

A Turkish official later said the wife revealed “a lot of information” about the jihadist group’s “inner workings” after she was captured.

Turkey has also captured Rasmiya Awad, the sister of Baghdadi, as well as her husband and daughter-in-law.

Last month, Turkey’s Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, said that his country’s forces captured an “important” figure within ISIS but would not provide further details.