Turkey: 1,313 terror suspects remanded in custody

By Mehmet Tosun

ANKARA

Turkish security forces remanded into custody more than a thousand people for their suspected links to Daesh terrorist organization, the Interior Ministry announced Wednesday.

A ministry statement said that in 2016 a total of 3,359 people were detained while 1,313 of them were taken into custody for their links to the terrorist organization.

Among the 1,313 remanded suspects, 679 of them were foreigners, the statement added.

The ministry said between 2011 and 2016 a total of 7,015 people, including 2, 712 foreign nationals were also arrested for their links to Daesh; 2,304 were taken into custody.

A total of 2,712 foreign nationals were arrested; most of them were Syrian, Russian, Iraqi, Chinese, Azerbaijani, Moroccan, Egyptian, Uzbek and Tunisian citizens.

Among 2,712 detained foreign nationals, 932 were remanded into custody.

Daesh overran Mosul, vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq, in mid-2014.

Turkey has been taking steps to crack down on Daesh ever since the group conducted a string of suicide bombings in Turkey.