Turkey deports eight ISIL suspects over terror links

İZMİR/ANKARA/KONYA-Anadolu Agency

Turkey deported seven Iraqis and a US citizen back to their country due to their links to the terrorist group ISIL, said Turkish security sources on Jan. 7.

In an anti-terror operation on the last day of 2019 in the Black Sea province of Samsun, Turkish security forces arrested 20 suspects and sent them to court.

On Jan. 7, the court ordered the deportation of seven of the suspects to their countries, following an earlier decision to deport 10 others.

Turkey deported a foreign terrorist to the U.S., according to the Interior Ministry on Jan. 7.

Turkey recognized ISIL as a terrorist group in 2013.

Since then, the country has been attacked by ISIL terrorists numerous times, including 10 suicide bombings, seven bombings, and four armed attacks which killed 315 people and injured hundreds.

In response, Turkey has launched military and police operations inside the country and abroad to prevent terrorist attacks.

Turkey detained seven suspects linked to the ISIL terror group in the country's west, security sources said on Jan. 7.

Police in İzmir province conducted an operation to catch the suspects -- five of them are Syrian nationals -- who had entered Turkey from conflict zones.

The suspects were in contact with people in conflict zones and were plotting terrorist attacks, according to the police.

The police carried out an anti-terror operation in Izmir's city center as well as in Tire district to arrest the suspect.

10 FETÖ suspects detained

Meanwhile, in capital Ankara, security forces on Jan. 7 detained 10 suspects over ties to the FETÖ, the group behind the defeated coup attempt of 2016.

Five former public officers were detained as part of an ongoing probe across 13 provinces.

According to a statement by the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, the detentionscame after a warrant was issued for 20 FETÖ suspects.

In a separate investigation into FETÖ held in the central Konya province of Turkey, detention warrants were issued against 10 suspects.

Of them, five were arrested for using ByLock, the terror group's encrypted smartphone messaging app.

FETÖ and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup attempt of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people killed and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.