IZMIR, Turkey
Turkish courts in Izmir and Ankara have ordered the arrests of a total of nine suspected Daesh members.
A court in Izmir province ordered the arrest of seven suspected Daesh members Friday who had been detained earlier in a major operation across three Turkish provinces earlier this week.
The Menemen Court in Izmir ordered the seven suspects, identified only through their initials E.K, C.A.K, F.S, A.V, A.D, E.C, and S.O., to be sent to prison until a trial determines their innocence.
Police detained the suspects Wednesday on charges of membership and participation in a terrorist organization.
The Anti-Terrorism Branch of Izmir Police Department said Wednesday that investigations into the suspects began after it received information that some alleged Daesh members, who took part in the fight across the border in Syria, had returned to Turkey.
Security sources also said that after returning to Turkey, the suspects indulged in recruitment for an extremist organization through social media.
Once the locations of the suspects were confirmed, an operation was launched simultaneously at 22 separate places in the western province of Izmir and southern province of Isparta, and in the eastern province of Erzurum, the police department added. Police also found two guns, a Daesh flag and many organizational documents during the searches conducted in Izmir’s Buca and Menemen districts.
Separately, a court in Ankara on Friday ordered the arrest of two other suspected Daesh members on charges “of being member of an armed terror organization”. Four other suspects in the case were set free under judicial supervision.
Turkey shares more than 800-kilometer long border with Syria, where thousands of foreign fighters have joined militant groups such as Daesh. Turkey continues to closely cooperate with other countries to stop the flow of the fighters to Syria.
