Raids led to the arrest of 53 people, including 24 minors, all of them from the Central Asian countries of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The children are now at the Pendik Children’s Bureau Headquarters, while the rest were summoned to the Anti-Terror Directorate headquarters for questioning. Turkish authorities say that many of those detained had entered Turkey illegally.

Turkey says it has proof that the detained Tajiks and Uzbeks have connections to the Islamic State and found maps and other documents in their possession. The children were being taught to espouse radical Islam and extremist ideology.

The Islamic State has never concealed the fact it uses children in its operations, organizing training camps for them, where they are trained to become Islamic militants that take part in extreme cruelty and executions that can involve beheading people.