Istanbul police detain 74 suspected Islamic State militants

ISTANBUL – Turkey’s official news agency says police have detained 74 suspects who are alleged members of the Islamic State group.

The Anadolu news agency said Saturday the anti-terror police conducted simultaneous operations at 15 different addresses in Istanbul.

Anadolu said 73 of the detained were foreigners and were handed over to relevant authorities to be deported. There was no information on their nationalities. The other suspect was being questioned.

IS has been blamed for several deadly attacks in Turkey, killing more than 300 people since 2015.

Along with combatting IS cells inside its borders, Turkey launched a military operation into northern Syria in August 2016 to clear the border zone of IS extremists after a suicide bomb ripped through a street wedding in the southeastern province of Gaziantep.