Turkey Police Detain Suspects on 'Terrorism' Links
Turkish police have rounded up 12 people suspected of ties to a "terrorist organization" in a string of raids across Turkey, the governor of the southern city of Adana said on Thursday.
Local media reported the suspects were affiliated with al-Qaida and the jihadist al-Nusra Front battling the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria.
"We cannot reveal any organization names right now, but their links will be evident after the questioning," governor Huseyin Avni Cos was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.
Radikal daily reported the police have also confiscated two kilograms of sarin gas, a powerful neurotoxin, from safe houses in Adana, some 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the border with Syria.
However, Cos said "there is no gas or anything of that sort captured as claimed," adding that they had found "some chemicals" that were still being studied by experts.
Six of the suspects have been released after questioning and the other six are still being held following the raids in the cities of Istanbul, Adana and Mersin, according to the governor.
The raids follow twin car bombings in the border town of Reyhanli on May 11, which killed 52 people and raised fears of the growing impact of the Syrian conflict in Turkey.
Source: Agence France Presse
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