Previous reports had suggested that the assailant was dressed in a Santa Claus costume; however, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım dismissed the claims.
Speaking after the Cabinet meeting, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesperson Numan Kurtulmuş said yesterday Turkey's cross-border and domestic operations will continue against Daesh and other terror groups. Kurtulmuş added that terror groups are targeting Turkey's national unity. The deputy prime minister also said that the international community should unite against terror groups, without discriminating between one group and another.
Kurtulmuş also announced that Turkey will continue diplomatic efforts to establish stability and a permanent cease-fire in Syria and restoring ties with Iraq will be among the priorities on the government's agenda in the new year.
Ankara and Istanbul were targeted by several attacks in 2016 carried out by Daesh terrorists or PKK militants, killing more than 180 people.
While Ankara's fight against the Daesh terror group led to the launch of the cross-border Operation Euphrates Shield on Aug. 24 into northern Syria, security forces also carried out countless anti-Daesh raids across the country, in addition to tightening security measures at its borders, arresting hundreds of suspected militants from the group.
According to official sources, through intelligence sharing with other countries, Turkey added more than 16,000 suspects to its no-entry list in 2016. Additionally, nearly 4,000 foreign terrorist fighters have been deported from Turkey after the successful operations by the security forces.
Also, according to Interior Ministry figures, in 2016, security forces detained 3,359 suspects, while 1,313 of them, including 679 foreign nationals, were arrested due to links to the terrorist group. The ministry has also said that between 2011 and 2016 a total of 7,015 people, including 2, 712 foreign nationals were arrested for their links to Daesh, with 2,304 taken into custody.
Although Turkey has long been taking security measures against Daesh domestically, the fight against the terrorist group in cross-border operations has been deemed necessary; particularly as Daesh fired numerous rockets into Turkey's southern border province of Kilis at various times and after a Daesh suicide attack in Turkey's southern Gaziantep province on Aug. 20 which killed 54 people and injured 95 others.
The launch of the cross-border operation was part of Turkey's new aim to eliminate terror threats posed to the country's national security before they are able to carry out the attacks. As such, through successful operations, Turkey has managed to push away the Daesh threat from its southern border to a range that is outside of that of the terror group's missiles.
Operation Euphrates Shield was launched on Aug. 24 by the Turkish military and the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The operation aims to create a terror-free zone in northern Syria across a 5,000-square-kilometer (1,930-square-mile) area. Following the liberation of al-Bab, Ankara wants to expand the operation toward Manbij, where the PKK's Syrian offshoot, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed wing the People's Protection Units (YPG) is in control. Since the launch of Operation Euphrates Shield, 1,294 Daesh and 306 PKK/PYD terrorists have been neutralized, while Turkish explosive ordinance disposal teams have neutralized 2,423 handmade explosives and 42 mines in areas cleared of Daesh since the beginning of Operation Euphrates Shield.
Daily Sabah
