Round 'em up! 63 al Qaeda arrested in Istanbul

Today, in a comments section at another blog I was informed that al Qaeda was a figment of my imagination.

Pinch me. I'm imagining things again.

A total of 45 al-Qaeda militants were taken into custody in simultaneous operations conducted in several districts across İstanbul yesterday following the apprehension of another group of 18 militants in an operation on Monday night.

The police had been pursuing the latter group, which was suspected of having links to al-Qaeda, for eight months after receiving permission to do so from the court. The police took action Monday night as soon as they discovered where the group was staying.

Approximately 300 security forces including police as well as special forces took part in the operations. The inspection of the suspects' computers also uncovered some of their plans and their encoded conversations with the terror organization's links abroad. The group is reportedly specialized in bomb making. The second group of militants, including six university students enrolled in law school, will be questioned by the police for four days.

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