Eight ISIL militants killed in Turkish shelling in Syria: Army

GAZİANTEP – Anadolu Agency

DHA photo

Eight militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were killed on April 25 when Turkish artillery units shelled a missile launcher, the Turkish General Staff has announced.

Turkish artillery units destroyed a missile launcher belonging to the jihadist group in a region north of Aleppo, six kilometers from the border and 21 kilometers from the center of the southeastern province of Kilis. 

Eight ISIL militants were killed in the shelling, the Turkish Army said.

Meanwhile, eight suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were apprehended on April 25 in the Oğuzeli district of the southeastern province of Gaziantep, the local governor’s office has announced following the second ISIL attempt to infiltrate the district in the last week.

Security forces at the border detained eight foreign ISIL suspects while they were trying to enter the country from Syria, the Gaziantep Governor’s Office said in a statement.

Legal proceedings have been opened against the suspects for “being a member of terror organization,” it added.

Security forces caught a total of 13 ISIL suspects over the past four days in Gaziantep and in the Central Anatolian province of Konya.

Six suspected foreign ISIL members were caught in an operation on early April 23 in Konya.

The Konya Governor’s Office said in a statement that the ISIL members had considered possible attacks targeting statesmen visiting the city along with other strategic targets. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was in the city on April 22 at an event to promote Konya as the Islamic world tourism capital.

In addition, seven suspected ISIL members were caught on April 21 in two different districts of Gaziantep.

Five Turkish suspects were caught while they were trying to enter the country illegally from Syria in the Karkamış district in addition to another two foreign members of ISIL in Oğuzeli. 

Turkey has recently been on high alert, as the country has been rocked by a series of suicide and car bomb attacks which claimed many lives and wounded hundreds.