Police in Turkey have detained at least 124 people suspected of links to the so-called Islamic State.

At least 33 foreign nationals were detained in the capital Ankara in a joint operation by anti-terrorism police and the national intelligence agency, according to the Anadolu Agency.

In Istanbul, police raided 31 houses, detaining 24 suspects, including four foreign nationals.

Police conducted simultaneous, pre-dawn raids in the city of Batman, in south-east Turkey, where 22 suspects were detained.

Raids were also conducted in the cities of Adana, Kayseri, Samsun and Bursa where 45 people, including six foreign nationals were detained.

Anadolu said the Islamic State suspects apprehended in Ankara were from Iraq, Syria and Morocco. Police were searching for 17 other suspects.

The country was hit by a wave of attacks in 2015 and 2016 blamed on Islamic State and Kurdish militants that killed over 300 people.

The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for an attack at an Istanbul nightclub during new year celebrations in the early hours of 2017. The attack killed 39 people, most of them foreigners.

Meanwhile, Turkey deported a total of 778 Islamic State or other jihadists back to their home countries in 2019, interior minister Suleyman Soylu said.

Turkey has stepped up its efforts to expel foreign fighters back to their countries of origin in recent months, accusing many European countries of not taking responsibility for their nationals and saying Turkey was “not a hotel” for foreign fighters.

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