Detained ISIL Militants Released By Court

A group of 12 individuals who have ties to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and who were detained while entering Turkey from Syria have been released by a court, despite the fact that officials knew of the individuals' connection to the militant group, one of the detainees told a daily on Tuesday.

The group was detained on June 26 at the Çobanbey border outpost in Kilis province and has since been released by the Kilis Criminal Court of Peace.

C.A., one of the 12 released by the Kilis court, spoke to the BirGün daily on Tuesday and said that they had fought in the ranks of ISIL for nine months.

C.A. also said he and others in the group, which included three women and five children, were interrogated by a prosecutor and officials from the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) after their detention at the border.

According to C.A., although he repeatedly denied that he had joined ISIL's ranks during his initial questioning, the prosecutor and the other officials interrogating him already knew of their link to ISIL.

C.A also said that the prosecutor had referred him to the Kilis court for arrest for having ties with ISIL.

The fact that they were apprehended by soldiers in the Elbeyli district of Kilis reportedly surprised C.A., as he said he has crossed the border going in and out of Turkey freely over the past nine months.

Militants arrested for links to ISIL include AK Party members

In the meanwhile, two of seven suspected members of the ISIL arrested after police raids at separate locations on last Wednesday believed to belong to the militant group have turned out to be members of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), according to a local media report.

Police counterterrorism teams raided 22 locations in the western provinces of İzmir and Manisa and the eastern province of Erzurum as part the operation.

Seven individuals detained during the raids in İzmir are believed to have fought in ISIL's ranks in Syria in an assault on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani last autumn before returning to Turkey, according to 9 Eylül, a local newspaper in İzmir.

Police teams found two pistols, five hunting rifles, ISIL flags and several documents indicating possible links between the suspects and ISIL during searches in Buca and Menemen, both districts of İzmir province.

The detainees were arrested by a court after being questioned by the İzmir Police Department Counterterrorism Unit. Arrestees F.Ş. and E.Ç. were found to be members of the AK Party's Menemen branch, according to the 9 Eylül report.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)