Istanbul: A Turkish court has ordered the arrest of 67 suspects as part of an investigation launched by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office against the ISIS terrorist organization. Among those arrested are individuals with proven links to ISIS members in Yalova province, northwest Turkey.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, the court approved the Public Prosecutor’s request to arrest 67 of the 72 suspects. The court also ordered that 48 others be placed under judicial supervision and that 32 foreign suspects be transferred to deportation centers for possible deportation, as they were deemed a threat to Turkey’s security.

The Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office had previously announced that the Terrorism Crimes Investigation Bureau had launched a broad investigation to uncover ISIS members and their activities, based on instructions issued to the Counter-Terrorism Branch of the Istanbul Security Directorate.

It explained that a person named “M.Y.”, suspected of being a leader in the terrorist organization, organized illegal classes and meetings inside unlicensed mosques with the aim of recruiting members for the organization.

The arrests included 41 suspects with direct links to the perpetrators involved in the attack that occurred in Yalova province earlier this week, in addition to 13 suspects proven to have direct links to ISIS, 14 others who published pro-ISIS propaganda content on social media, and 15 individuals classified as “foreign terrorist fighters.”

These developments come in the wake of a security operation carried out by Turkish authorities against ISIS in Yalova province last Monday, which resulted in the deaths of three police officers and injuries to eight others, as well as the deaths of six ISIS members, according to Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.