ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Turkey arrested 125 suspected Islamic State (ISIS) members across the country following security threats over the holidays and New Year celebrations, the interior minister said on Wednesday.

“This morning, in 25 provinces, we captured 125 Daesh [ISIS] suspects in operations conducted simultaneously by our Gendarmerie and Police,” Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X.

Istanbul’s prosecutor’s office said the extremist group was “planning attacks during Christmas and New Year celebrations,” with Turkey having arrested nearly 600 suspects in the past week.

In another operation against an ISIS cell in Turkey’s northwestern Yalova province on Monday, three officers and six ISIS militants were killed in an hours-long gunfight. Some of the Wednesday arrests were in Yalova, which is around 96 kilometers south of Istanbul.

A day later, Turkey arrested another 357 suspects with alleged ties to ISIS across the country.

In the New Year of 2017, ISIS attacked a nightclub in Istanbul, killing 39 people, mostly foreigners.

Ankara has ramped up operations against suspected ISIS militants this year, as fears mount over the resurgence of the group.

“Those who seek to harm our brotherhood, our unity, our togetherness; those who try to exploit our faith; those who attack our values will only face the might of our state and the unity of our nation!” Yerlikaya warned.

ISIS controlled large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria following its rise in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in 2019. Despite being devoid of territorial control, jihadist remnants remain active in hit-and-run operations, posing a serious danger to security in the areas they previously controlled.