ANKARA, Turkey – Turkish police on Friday detained some 20 people suspected of links to the Islamic State group ahead of a G-20 summit near the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
The suspects, including two Russian nationals, were detained in simultaneous in raids in and around Antalya, which will be hosting U.S. President Barack Obama and other G-20 leaders later this month.
Massive suicide bombings in the Syrian border town of Suruc and in the capital Ankara – blamed on a local cell of the Islamic State group – have killed some 130 people since July.
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Police have carried out several raids across Turkey in the past weeks, detaining dozens of people linked to IS as well as stepping up efforts to prevent suspected militants from crossing in and out of neighbouring Syria. Last month, Turkey claimed it struck a major blow to an IS cell in a raid in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, in which seven militants were killed.
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On Thursday, authorities detained 40 Moroccans and one Syrian who flew in to Istanbul’s main airport from Casablanca, over suspicion that they aimed to use the Turkish territory to cross into Syria to join the IS group, Anadolu said. Half of them were deported, while the others were still being questioned.
Turkey says it has banned 20,000 suspected foreign fighters from entering the country and deported more than 2,000 foreign militants.
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