Turkish police arrested a British family in the capital
Ankara after being tipped off that they would try to cross the Syrian border to
join Islamic State militants, a Turkish official said Tuesday.
“We received the intelligence from British police on April 19
that a British couple with four children may cross into Syria to join ISIS,”
the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, using an alternative name for
the terrorist group.
Turkish police found out that the couple had crossed from
Greece into Kirklareli in eastern Thrace in the European part of Turkey on
April 16.
The man, 33, and the woman, 29, have four children including
a baby.
“Turkish police tracked the couple and arrested them in a hotel
in the Ostim district of Ankara 24 hours after Britain’s notification,”
according to the official.
“The family, which is now being held by Ankara police, is
expected to be deported by the end of this week.”
Turkey has long been criticised by its Western allies for not
doing enough to halt the flow across its territory of European nationals
seeking to join IS insurgents in Syria.
It was sharply criticised over the failure to stop three
British teenage girls who crossed the Turkey-Syria border to join IS in
February.
In recent months, Turkish police have arrested a number of
mostly British suspects bound for the war-torn country. Turkey has called for
increased cooperation with European countries on intelligence-sharing to stem
the flow of would-be European jihadis.
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