Turkish police detained two suspected members of the ISIS on Wednesday. The two were allegedly plotting suicide attacks in Turkey’s capital city, Ankara, on New Year’s Eve, a senior government official said.
The official told Reuters that the two men who entered Turkey from Syria, were thought to have been preparing an attack on Kizilay square in the centre of Ankara. Kizilay square is where crowds usually gather to celebrate the New Year.
A spokesperson for the police terrorism division in Ankara declined to comment.
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 ISIS on the Syrian side and has been used as a transit route by would-be jihadists from early on in Syria’s civil war.
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