Turkish police have detained eight serving members of the army in the latest wave of arrests in a hugely controversial case over the interception last year of an alleged consignment of arms bound for Syria, reports said Saturday.

Arrest warrants were issued for 10 soldiers, of whom eight had been detained by Friday night, the official Anatolia news agency reported.

A U.S. man born in Iraq was arrested Thursday for allegedly lying to the FBI about supporting the Islamic State jihadists after a pledge of allegiance to the group's leader was found on his computer, the Justice Department said.

Bilal Abood, 37, of Mesquite, Texas, is believed to have traveled from the United States to Syria through Mexico and Turkey in 2013, the Justice Department said.

NATO and the European Union on Thursday said they wanted to tighten cooperation in the face of "new threats" emanating from the assertive policies of Russia in the ex-USSR and violence to the south of the military alliance's borders.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, attending a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Turkey's southern resort of Antalya, said the two organisations were "different in nature" but facing similar challenges.

Turkey on Tuesday said nothing can justify Russia's actions in Ukraine and other ex-Soviet states, in a rare strong criticism of its increasingly close ally ahead of a NATO meeting.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, whose country is a key member of NATO, said Ankara was prepared to play a "constructive role" in the disputes between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

Turkey on Tuesday called for determined action from NATO member states against the "significant" threat posed by Islamic State jihadists who have taken swathes of Iraq and Syria up to its borders.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in Antalya that the threat from IS to the south of the NATO alliance's borders would be a key issue when its top diplomats hold a two-day meeting from Wednesday in the southern resort city.

The White House on Tuesday welcomed plans to resume U.N.-brokered talks to unify the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

"The United States welcomes the announcement that Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders will resume settlement talks on May 15," said National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan.

Turkish police hunting an alleged drug smuggler "mistakenly" raided the home of the leader of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtas, local media reported Tuesday. 

Plain clothes police officers showed up at Demirtas' home in the Kurdish-majority southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Saturday, saying they were looking for a man accused of drug smuggling, Hurriyet daily reported.

Turkey's top judicial body on Tuesday expelled four prosecutors and a judge who oversaw a massive corruption investigation that tarnished the Islamic-rooted government and reached into the inner circle of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) voted to bar prosecutors Zekeriya Oz, Celal Kara, Muammer Akkas and Mehmet Yuzgec, as well as judge Suleyman Karacol, state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias on Tuesday said the resumption of U.N.-brokered peace talks present a "window of opportunity" to reunify the divided island of Cyprus.

"We are facing a window of opportunity for Cyprus, as American diplomats say," Kotzias told a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Turkey's capital Ankara.

Turkey's army held a state funeral service Tuesday for former president Kenan Evren, but no government official attended the burial of the man who masterminded the bloodiest military coup in Turkish history. 

Evren died aged 97 at a military hospital in Ankara on Saturday —- almost a year after he received a life sentence for his role in the coup, which unleashed a wave of arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings.