Turkey: Five suspected Islamic State militants killed by police in Konya, says governor's office

Ankara: Turkish police killed five suspected Islamic State group jihadists in the central Turkish province of Konya, the governor’s office said. “During the operation, the five terrorists were neutralised after they resisted armed force, and four security forces were lightly injured,” the governor’s office said in a statement. [caption id=“attachment_855391” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational photo. AP image[/caption] Police also seized weapons during the raid including five Kalashnikovs, a gun and ammunition. The raid took place as part of an investigation into whether the suspects were planning to target events commemorating last year’s failed coup on 15 July, Dogan news agency said. The statement did not say whether the five had actually been planning an attack. Police began the raid shortly after sunrise, targeting a house believed to belong to an Islamic State cell, Dogan said, indicating that they searched a total of 10 separate addresses. Turkey has been hit by a series of attacks in the last 18 months blamed on Islamic State and Kurdish militants. In a report published on Tuesday, the interior ministry said there had been 14 major terrorist attacks conducted by Islamic State including 10 suicide bombings, one bomb attack and three armed attacks. The attacks had killed 304 people, including 10 police officers and one soldier. The last major Islamic State attack was during New Year’s Eve celebrations at an elite Istanbul nightclub where a gunman killed 39 people, most of them foreigners. Police arrested the attacker after a manhunt. Last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed Turkey had killed 3,000 Islamic State terrorists during its operations against the group in northern Syria which ran from August until March. He also said Turkey had deported 5,000 terror suspects and banned another 53,000 people from entering the country.