Ankara, Nov 26 (IANS): Turkish police detained 54 suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) group during a series of nationwide operations, Turkey's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Tuesday.

The operations, named 'GURZ-26', were conducted across 18 provinces, including Afyonkarahisar, Aydin, Bursa and Istanbul, Yerlikaya stated on X, without specifying the time frame of the operations.

Of the 54 suspects, 20 were formally arrested, while judicial control measures were imposed on 11 others, he added.

In budget discussions at parliament, Yerlikaya disclosed that Turkish security forces carried out 1,205 operations against IS across Turkey in the first 10 months of 2024.

These efforts resulted in the arrest of 655 individuals, with judicial controls placed on an additional 566 suspects, Xinhua news agency reported.

Turkish police have been regularly conducting counter-terrorism operations against IS members across the country.

The Turkish government designated IS as a terrorist organisation in 2013, blaming it for a spate of deadly attacks in the country since 2015, including a January attack on a Roman Catholic church in Istanbul that killed one person.