Turkish army head attends Riyadh meeting against Daesh

ANKARA

Turkey's chief of General Staff arrived in Saudi Arabia Sunday for a two-day meeting on efforts to fight the Daesh terrorist organization, the military said.

Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar gathered with military heads from a total of 13 countries in the Saudi capital Riyadh, said a Turkish General Staff statement.

Besides Turkey and Saudi Arabia, military chiefs from the U.S., Jordan, Tunisia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Malaysia, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, and Nigeria are attending the meeting, which will end with a joint declaration.

Turkey has been taking steps to crack down on Daesh since 2014, when the terrorist organization launched a series of suicide bombings in Turkey.

Separately, Turkey has been conducting Operation Euphrates Shield, which began late last August to improve security and eliminate the terror threat from Daesh as well as other terrorist groups along Turkey’s border with Syria.

*Reporting by Sarp Ozer; Writing by Burcu Arik