Turkey deports 11 people linked to ISIS
ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey has deported 11 French nationals who are suspected of being members of the Islamic State, the Interior Ministry said Monday.
A brief ministry statement said 11 "foreign terrorist fighters" were returned to their home country.
It didn't provide details or identify the suspects. The French Foreign Ministry declined to offer details on the returning citizens, including how many were children.
Last month, Turkey stepped up the return of suspected foreign Islamic State members -- either held in Turkish prisons or in Syria -- back to their countries of origin, saying Turkey was "not a hotel" for foreign fighters.
While Turkey has quietly deported suspected jihadis for years, it raised the issue more forcefully after Western nations refused to back its invasion of northeastern Syria and its offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom Ankara considers terrorists linked to Kurdish insurgents fighting inside Turkey. Many countries have voiced concerns that the Turkish incursion would lead to a resurgence of the Islamic State.
Monday's deportations raised the number of such foreign fighters expelled from Turkey since Nov. 11 to 71, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported, including citizens of the United States, Denmark, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. At least 18 suspects were returned to Germany, the agency reported.
Turkey has been accused of enabling the influx of thousands of foreign Islamic State sympathizers into Syria over the years. Turkey has denied the accusations and later stepped up security at its borders, including by profiling possible militant fighters at airports and building a wall along parts of its porous border.
Hong Kong protests' arrests top 6,000
HONG KONG -- Hong Kong police said they have made 6,022 arrests and fired nearly 16,000 tear gas rounds during six months of anti-government protests that have shaken the city.
Police said the arrests included 11 people detained in raids over the weekend that netted a pistol and other weapons. Police suspect the weapons were intended for use during a demonstration attended by hundreds of thousands of peaceful marchers on Sunday.
Authorities also arrested 12 people on Monday suspected of preparing gasoline bombs.
Police said they have also fired 10,000 rubber baton rounds during the six months of protests and that 493 officers have been injured.
Bomb kills 2 Turks trying to defuse it
ANKARA, Turkey -- At least two Turkish soldiers were killed and seven others were wounded on Monday while attempting to defuse an improvised explosive device, officials said.
The device exploded in a village near the town of Idil, in the mainly-Kurdish populated Sirnak province, according to a statement from the regional governor's office. It said the explosive device was planted by militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.
The statement didn't provide further details but said Turkey's operations to combat the group were continuing with "determination."
There was no word on the wounded soldiers' conditions.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party -- which is considered a terror organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union -- has been waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people.
In October, Turkey invaded areas of northeast Syria in a bid to drive Syrian Kurdish fighters away from its border. Turkey says the Syrian Kurdish fighters are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, and Turkey has been infuriated by Western nations' support to the militia.
Cyprus boosts patrols to halt migrants
NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Joint police and military patrols are being launched along ethnically split Cyprus' dividing line to counter an influx of migrants crossing from the breakaway north, the country's interior minister said Monday.
Nicos Nouris told state broadcaster CyBC that the patrols will be on a 24-hour basis in and around the divided capital. The measure will be reviewed at the end of next month to gauge its effectiveness.
The minister said police officers are accompanying soldiers on patrols because military personnel aren't authorized to detain civilians. Additional, nightly patrols by elite police unit members will be set in motion to bolster citizens' sense of security, Nouris said.
Cyprus' 112-mile-long, United Nations-controlled buffer zone is narrowest at Nicosia's medieval core, where only a few yards separate the two sides, and has become relatively porous in sections where guard posts are no longer manned.
Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded in the wake of a coup by supporters of union with Greece.
Cypriot authorities say the country is a leader among European Union member states in the number of migrant arrivals relative to its population.
Officials say the vast majority of migrants enter the country from the north and cross into the internationally recognized south to apply for asylum.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 12/10/2019