Turkey detains eight foreign IS suspects in border provinces

Ankara, March 22: A total of eight foreign suspects of Islamic State (IS) were captured recently as they were attempting to infiltrate Turkey through southern border provinces with Syria, according to officials and local news reports on Monday.

Security forces at the Gorentas border town of Hatay province detained three suspected foreign IS terrorists on March 20 while they were trying to cross from Syria into Turkey illegally, Xinhua cited Turkish General Staff as saying on Monday.

Two foreign IS suspects were detained by officers of the Ermis border patrol in the southeastern Gaziantep province on the same day while attempting to cross the Turkish-Syrian border illegally, Dogan News reported.

Three foreign IS suspects were detained in Kilis province on March 18, Kilis governor's office stated.

The suspects were later handed to gendarmerie officers. The captures came at a time when the Turkish security forces are on high alert to catch IS militants who have been detected inside the country and are allegedly in pursuit of carrying out attacks across Turkey in crowded places.

IANS