ISIL militants deported by Turkey being arrested

BERLIN

An ISIL suspect who was stranded at the Turkey-Greece border has been extradited to the U.S. on Nov. 15.

German authorities have detained an ISIL suspect who returned to the country on Nov. 15 on suspicion of terrorism offenses, the Federal Prosecutor’s office has announced.

Nasim A., 21, one of two female foreign fighters deported by Turkey on Nov. 15, was accused of membership to a terrorist group, violating gun laws, and committing war crimes.

The German woman is believed to have traveled to Syria in 2014 and later moved to Iraq with her husband, who was also a member of the terrorist group ISIL.

Heida R., the second ISIL suspect deported by Turkey on Nov.15, was released after German police took her fingerprints and DNA samples.

So far since last week, Turkey has also repatriated eight other Germans and one British suspected fighter.

An ISIL suspect who was stranded at the Turkey-Greece border has been extradited to the U.S. on Nov. 15.

The U.S. citizen of Arab descent had requested deportation to Greece but was refused entry. He had been stuck in a buffer zone between Turkey and Greece for four days.

Ankara has said that the suspects will be deported to Ireland, France, and other nations, mostly European states, in the coming days.

German authorities last week have detained a suspect, who was expelled with his family from Turkey. The father of a family of seven, expelled by Turkey on Nov. 14, was taken into custody on arrival in Germany, said Martin Pallgen, a spokesman for the Berlin state Interior Ministry.

Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, more than 1,050 foreign fighters traveled from Germany to conflict areas in Syria and Iraq, according to German security agencies.

Turkey started on Nov. 11 deporting foreign fighters it captured in anti-terror operations at home and abroad to their countries of origin.

The issue of the handling of ISIL members and their families detained in Syria — including foreign members of the terror group — has been controversial, with Turkey arguing foreign-born terrorists should be repatriated to their countries of origin.

While criticizing some European countries for resisting repatriation, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu recently said Germany and the Netherlands have pledged to accept ISIL members and their families captured by Turkey.

France will take back 11 suspected French ISIL members from Turkey, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on Nov. 12.

Soylu earlier said Turkey was “not a hotel” for foreign fighters and suspected members of ISIL.