Turkey Arrests Daesh Suspects After Infiltrating Country Under Border Wall

Turkish law enforcement officers have detained nine people over alleged links to Daesh militant group, including three Iraqis, who managed to dig a tunnel under the concrete walls that Ankara had built to prevent jihadists from arriving in Turkey, local media reported Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the Hurriyet newspaper, officers in the southeastern province of Kahramanmaras detained four Daesh suspects, including three Iraqis and a Syrian on Sunday. The suspects reportedly dug a tunnel under Turkey’s concrete walls recently built along the Syrian border to prevent militants from reaching Turkey.

The four suspects appeared before a court, which arrested the three Iraqi nationals for "membership of a terror organization," while the suspect of Syrian origin was released, the media outlet reported.

Another six Daesh militants were detained in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on suspicion of preparing a car bomb attack and subsequently arrested by a local court. One of the suspects allegedly had links to perpetrators behind twin blasts in Ankara that killed over 100 people during a peace rally in October.

Turkey has seen a number of terror attacks in recent months, including a suicide blast in Istanbul, which ripped through a major tourist street in the city, killing five people including the attacker, and injuring at least 36 others.

Daesh extremist group is outlawed in many countries including Russia and the United States.