ISIS

Dec. 25 (UPI) — Police in Turkey detained 115 people on Thursday suspected of planning to stage terror attacks at Christmas and New Year’s Day celebrations in the country.

The Istanbul Provincial Police Department, on instruction from the city’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, carried out 124 raids targeting 137 suspected members of ISIS, officials said in a press release.

“These suspects were identified as being in contact with conflict zones within the scope of terrorist organization activities,” the prosecutor’s office said in a press release posted to X.

The suspects, prosecutors said, were “planning attacks and issuing calls for action targeting our country — specifically aimed at non-Muslim individuals — within the context of upcoming Christmas and New Year events.”

Officials apprehended 115 of the 137 suspects and seized pistols, cartridges and “numerous organization documents” during the raids.

The Turkish National Intelligence Organization had earlier captured what it said is a senior ISIS figure who is suspected of being sent to carry out a suicide attack in Turkey, the Daily Sabah reported.

Other ISIS operators had as a result been investigated in Turkey after spending time in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region where they trained and planned for potential security attacks, according to Turkish intelligence figures.

Turkey, which shares a border with Syria, where ISIS continues to operate, has worked with Syria’s new president, as well as officials in the United States and Europe, to investigate and root what is left of the terrorist group, the BBC reported.

In a ‘declaration of vengeance’ for a deadly attack on US soldiers last week, the US military launched more than 70 strikes on alleged ISIL targets in Syria.

Dec. 19 (UPI) — The U.S. military struck several ISIS-connected targets in Syria on Friday in retaliation for the shooting deaths of two U.S. soldiers and their interpreter last week.

The suspected Islamic State targets include weapons storage facilities and infrastructure, CNN, CBS News and The New York Times reported.

The military used artillery, attack helicopters and fighter jets to hit targets in central Syria during Operation Hawkeye, which is named after the two slain soldiers’ home state of Iowa.

The strikes were expected to take place into early Saturday morning as part of a retaliation campaign against ISIS in Syria, The Times reported.

A lone ISIS sniper killed Iowa National Guardsmen Sgt. William Howard, 29, and Sgt. Edgar Torres Tovar, 25, and civilian interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat, 54. Three other Iowa National Guardsmen also were wounded.

The ISIS sniper ambushed the soldiers while they were “supporting a key leader” in Palmyra, Syria, CBS News reported.

The sniper had been a member of the Syrian security forces, but he was scheduled to be dismissed from his duties due to extremist views, U.S. and Syrian officials said.

ISIS remains a factor in Syria, where it has lost much of its prior territorial control after the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8, 2024, by opposition forces led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.

The collapse of the Assad regime largely ended a 14-year civil war in Syria, and he has been replaced by current Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Sharaa met with Trump at the White House last month and on Friday welcomed the lifting of U.S. sanctions against the Syrian government that were placed during the Assad regime.

Lifting the sanctions makes it possible for investments to be made in Syria, which has struggled to recover from its civil war.