Payback’s a bitch.
Turkish jets and tanks hammered 100 ISIS targets in Syria just hours after the terror group’s gunman killed 39 New Year’s Eve revellers in an Istanbul nightclub.
Dramatic aerial footage shows warplanes using rockets to obliterate ISIS hideouts near the towns of al-Bab, Tadif and Bzagah in the north of the war-torn country, killing 22 extremists and destroying buildings.
The video emerged as Turkish authorities continued their manhunt for the nightclub killer who arrived in a taxi before slaughtering partygoers.
But the latest aerial offensive comes as ISIS claimed responsibility for the New Year’s Day mass shooting.
Turkey’s state-run news agency said more than 100 ISIS targets in Syria were hit by Turkey and Russia in separate operations, a day after the deadly attack. Anadolu added that Russian jets also attacked ISIS targets in Dayr Kak, eight five miles to the southwest of Al Bab.
Turkey’s Interior Ministry said today that dozens of people have been detained in the past week over suspected ties to ISIS. In a statement released Monday, the ministry said 147 people were detained after authorities determined ‘they were in contact with the Daesh terrorist organisation’. Of the detained, 25 people have been formally put under arrest.
ISIS this morning claimed responsibility for the Istanbul shooting, that also left 69 wounded.
The ISIS-linked Aamaq News Agency said the New Year’s attack was carried by a ‘heroic soldier of the caliphate who attacked the most famous nightclub where Christians were celebrating their pagan feast.’
It said the man opened fire from an automatic rifle in ‘revenge for God’s religion and in response to the orders’ of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The group described Turkey as ‘the servant of the cross.’