Turkey arrests 3 alleged ISIS members trying to cross border: sources

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Police in Turkey arrested three people with alleged membership to the so-called Islamic State who were trying to cross into the country’s eastern border, security sources said on Wednesday.

According to Turkish media, anti-terror police in Kocaeli launched an operation following investigations that determined “the terror suspects were seeking to reach the conflict zones illegally.”

The suspects were arrested in the eastern Igdir province on the border with Azerbaijan before being brought to Kocaeli.

Last week, authorities in Turkey arrested 13 individuals suspected to be members of the Islamic State who were reportedly planning a New Year’s attack.

Read More: Turkey detains 13 ISIS suspects planning New Year’s attack: report

According to state-run Anadolu Agency, police detained the suspects in the southern Osmaniye province.

“The suspects were allegedly planning terrorist attacks around the time of New Year’s celebrations,” Anadolu Agency quoted security sources as saying.

Meanwhile, Ankara has begun to repatriate foreign fighters in its custody, especially those with membership in the Islamic State.

In November, Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu warned that Ankara would return foreign Islamic State detainees to their native countries, even if their citizenship had been revoked.

According to Soylu, Turkey currently has around 1,200 foreign Islamic State members in its prisons, including relatives of the suspects.