Police detain alleged IS commander in Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish police have detained an alleged top commander of the Islamic State group in Turkey, the country’s interior minister said Tuesday.

Suleyman Soylu identified the suspect as Mahmut Ozden and described him as the “emir” of the militant group in Turkey.

Police seized the suspect’s computer and other “digital material” which revealed that the group planned to kidnap Turkish politicians and to take them to Syria. The group also planned to attack businesses, the minister said.

Soylu told reporters that information obtained from an IS militant who was detained in a raid in Istanbul last week while reportedly planning to conduct a “sensational” attack in the city, led to Ozden’s arrest. Operations against the group are ongoing, Soylu added.

Haberturk news channel said the man was detained in an operation in the southern city of Adana.

Turkey has suffered a string of attacks by Islamic State militants over the past five years, including an attack at an Istanbul nightclub during New Year celebrations in the early hours of 2017. The attack killed 39 people, most of them foreigners.

Last month, police in northwestern Bursa province also detained a suspected IS militant who was allegedly planning an attack on a police station.