Turkey detains Belgian IS suspect ‘planning attack’

Turkish authorities have detained in Istanbul a Belgian national who spent time in Syria and is accused of planning a major attack, the state-run Anadolu news agency said Tuesday.

The man, identified as M.A., was detained in the Fatih district of the city, Anadolu said, adding that he had gone to Syria with his wife and children three years ago to join the Islamic State group.

The Hurriyet daily reported that the man was suspected of being the coordinator for all French-speaking jihadists seeking to join the Islamic militants, and also of planning jihadist attacks in Europe.

He had been the target of an international search, it added.

The report of the arrest comes after a 24-year-old Turkish police officer was stabbed to death in Istanbul at the weekend by a suspected IS member who had been arrested on suspicions he was planning a suicide attack.

His superiors praised the heroism of the officer, saying he had helped prevent a “very serious attack”.

Turkey was hit by a succession of attacks in 2016 that left hundreds dead in the bloodiest year of terror strikes in its history.

The attacks were attributed to IS jihadists as well as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who have battled the Turkish state in an insurgency lasting more than three decades.

In one of the bloodiest strikes, a jihadist gunman opened fire on an elite nightclub in Istanbul just 75 minutes into New Year’s Day in 2017, killing 39 people, mainly foreigners.

There has since been a lull in similar attacks, but tensions remain high and Turkish police launch raids almost daily against suspected IS cells across the country.