ISTANBUL, Turkish - Special forces foiled a suicide plot to bomb New Year’s Eve celebrations in Turkey’s capital, raiding a house and detaining two suspected ISIS militants, officials said Wednesday.
Suicide vests and explosive devices were found at the house in Ankara’s Mamak district, prosecutors told NBC News.
The two suspects, who are suspected of planning a suicide attack Thursday night, were under interrogation at police headquarters in the city.
Turkey’s Anadolu Agency said the two were Pakistanis and that their detention let to the arrest of a third person, a British citizen, according to The Associated Press.
A double suicide bombing blamed on ISIS killed more than 100 people in Ankara in October, and Turkey has since stepped up its efforts to tackle the militants.
The country has a 550-mile border with Syria, some of which is controlled by ISIS on the Syrian side and has been used as a transit route by would-be jihadists from early on in Syria's civil war.
The arrests in Turkey came a day after two people were arrested in Belgium on suspicion of planning holiday terror attacks there.
Prosecutors in Brussels said an investigation had brought to light the threat of serious attacks targeting symbolic locations in the city during end-of-year celebrations.
Alastair Jamieson reported from London.
