Ankara – A court in the western Turkish city of Izmir on Monday sentenced two Afghans for being pro-ISIS and for carrying out reconnaissance in favor of the terrorist organization, preparing for a terrorist attack.

Security sources said the anti-terrorist and intelligence forces of the Izmir Security Directorate arrested the two Afghan militants at the main bus station in the city after suspicion and seized from them documents related to ISIS.

Sources pointed out that investigations have revealed that the detainees belong to the terrorist organization and have links to the areas of clashes in Syria and Iraq and that they came to Izmir to carry out reconnaissance in preparation for the implementation of a terrorist attack in the city.

Following the investigation, the two suspects were transferred to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which in turn referred them to the court that sentenced them to jail.

Turkish security forces continue its intensified campaigns throughout the country, targeting terrorist organizations, mainly ISIS, in which 4,000 ISIS suspects and militants have been arrested since the beginning of 2017.

Due to these operations, ISIS has failed to commit any terrorist attack in Turkey following the attack that was carried out by the Uzbek ISIS militant, Abdulkadir Masharipov, who operated under the cover name Abu Mohammed Horasani, on Reina nightclub, killing 39 people and injuring 69 others of different nationalities.

Izmir has witnessed a series of security campaigns that resulted in the arrest of about 100 ISIS sleeper cells, most of them from Uzbekistan and Central Asian countries, in connection with Masharipov, who was arrested on January 16 in Istanbul.

In this context, the Turkish Interior Ministry announced on Monday that a total of 48 outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists have been neutralized in 548 operations across Turkey over the past week; a number of ISIS militants were also detained in the same period.