ISTANBUL — Turkish authorities have detained eight suspected members of Daesh crossing from Syria into the southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep, the provincial governor’s office said on Monday.
Gaziantep neighbors the Turkish province of Kilis, which has seen repeated cross-border rocket attacks from an area of Syria controlled by Islamic State. One person was killed and 26 injured in Kilis on Sunday.
The detentions came after Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Gaziantep on Saturday with European Council President Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and promised all necessary measures would be taken to prevent more rocket fire.
Turkey has been on heightened alert after four suicide bombings this year in Istanbul and Ankara, two of which have been blamed on Daesh.
Turkey has killed almost 900 alleged members of the Daesh group since January through artillery fire and air raids, the state-run Anatolia news agency said Monday, citing military sources.
The country, a member of a US-led coalition fighting Daesh, has killed 492 “terrorists” since January 9 in air raids, while another 370 were killed in artillery strikes which also destroyed arms depots, the agency said.
These figures could not be independently verified. Turkey, which has been hit by attacks blamed on militants, including two deadly suicide bombings in Istanbul that targeted foreign tourists, began to carry out air strikes against the group in Syria last summer.
Ankara also allows US jets to use its air base in southern Turkey for air bombardments on the extremist group in Syria.
Turkey began its air strikes following a suicide bombing in July last year blamed on the Daesh extremists, which killed 34 people in the border town of Suruc.
In recent weeks, the Turkish border town of Kilis has come under frequent attack from rockets fired across the border from Syria, prompting the army to respond to each strike with howitzer fire.
Meanwhile, two Turkish soldiers were killed and four wounded on Monday in an armed attack by Kurdish militants in the southeastern Turkish town of Nusaybin near the Syrian border, the armed forces said in a statement.
Security sources earlier told Reuters that one soldier had been killed and three wounded in the attack, which they said had involved explosives.
The armed forces said in a separate statement that on Sunday 15 militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had been killed in clashes in Nusaybin and the towns of Sirnak and Lice, also in the southeast. — Agencies
