Turkey Arrests 15 Iraqis, One Syrian Over Suspected ISIS Links

A security raid on ISIS elements in Turkey
A security raid on ISIS elements in Turkey
TT

Turkey Arrests 15 Iraqis, One Syrian Over Suspected ISIS Links

A security raid on ISIS elements in Turkey
A security raid on ISIS elements in Turkey

Turkish security forces arrested Friday 16 foreigners in the Black Sea province of Samsun with suspected links to the ISIS terrorist organization.

Security sources said that anti-terror teams carried out simultaneous operations to arrest the suspects in the districts of Ilkadim and Atakum in northern Turkey.

The suspects included 15 Iraqi nationals and one Syrian and proved to be active among ISIS ranks. The security sources said they possessed digital materials that promoted the ideology of the terror group.

On Thursday, the anti-terror teams in western Kutahya province arrested four ISIS suspects, whose names were listed as members of terror groups in a document seized in Syria's northeastern Hassakah province in 2018.

Last week, security forces in Istanbul arrested 14 people with suspected links to the extremist organization.

The suspects included 13 foreign nationals, some of whom are suspected of being active in Syria.

The Istanbul Police Department said in a statement that the 14 suspects were arrested at 20 different venues in simultaneous anti-terror operations by police and intelligence teams.

Since 2015, ISIS has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist operations, in which more than 300 people were killed and hundreds others were injured.

Those operations include at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks, and four armed attacks.

Turkish security services have been carrying out ongoing campaigns against the organizations’ cells, arresting more than 5,000 of its members.

Over the past five years, more than 3,000 others have been deported.

Turkey launched the campaign to deport foreign fighters in November 2019, after the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a US raid in Idlib earlier in October.



Russia Launches Soyuz Rocket with Dozens of Satellites, Including Two from Iran

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying Russian the Meteor-M spacecraft and 18 Russian and foreign additional small satellites, blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, February 29, 2024. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying Russian the Meteor-M spacecraft and 18 Russian and foreign additional small satellites, blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, February 29, 2024. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
TT

Russia Launches Soyuz Rocket with Dozens of Satellites, Including Two from Iran

A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying Russian the Meteor-M spacecraft and 18 Russian and foreign additional small satellites, blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, February 29, 2024. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage, carrying Russian the Meteor-M spacecraft and 18 Russian and foreign additional small satellites, blasts off from a launchpad at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, February 29, 2024. Roscosmos/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

Russia launched a Soyuz rocket early on Tuesday carrying two satellites designed to monitor the space weather around Earth and 53 small satellites, including two Iranian ones, Russia's Roscosmos space agency said.
The Soyuz-2.1 launch spacecraft, which lifted off from Russia's Vostochny Cosmodrome, carried two Ionosfera-M satellites, which will become part of the space system for monitoring the Earth's ionosphere, the agency said.
The ionosphere, where Earth's atmosphere meets space, stretches roughly 50 to 400 miles (80 to 644 km) above Earth's surface, according to information provided on NASA's website.
Each Ionosfera-M satellite weighs 430 kg (948 lb) and its working orbit is at an altitude of 820 km (510 miles), according to Interfax news agency.
The system will include in total four of the Ionosfera-M satellites. The next two devices are planned to be launched in 2025, Roscosmos reported.
Among the 53 small satellites are two Iranian satellites, the Kowsar, a high-resolution imaging satellite, and Hodhod, a small communications satellite, as well as the first Russian-Chinese student satellite Druzhba ATURK, Reuters reported.
Russia in February launched into space an Iranian research satellite that will scan Iran's topography from orbit, Iran's state media reported at the time.