Turkey widens anti-ISIS operation after deadly Ankara clash

Turkey detained 119 suspects accused of links to the Islamic State (IS) group in an operation carried out across the country, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Saturday in a statement.

"119 suspects were detained in an operation conducted in 30 provinces against the terrorist organization Daesh by our gendarmerie," the ministry said, naming Istanbul, Ankara and Adana among the provinces involved.

The suspects are accused of being IS members, spreading the group's propaganda on social media, and financing it "through individuals linked to the terrorist organization and so-called charitable associations," the statement added.

The sweep follows a deadly incident in late June, when a man suspected of ties to the Islamic State group was killed in a shootout with police south of Ankara, two weeks before a NATO summit was held in the Turkish capital. That incident led to the arrest of 209 people suspected of links to IS and far-left splinter groups in Ankara, at the request of the capital's prosecutor.

Turkey has carried out a series of large-scale anti-IS operations over the past year, part of an ongoing crackdown on the group's remaining networks in the country even as it maintains only a diminished, low-level presence following its territorial defeat in Syria and Iraq.