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Turkey detains 23 IS suspects along Syrian border

Xinhua, January 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

Turkey detained 23 suspected Islamic State (IS) militants trying to enter Turkey through Syria, according to the Turkish General Staff's released statement Sunday.

The suspects, whose nationalities were not disclosed, were captured on Jan. 23 as they attempted to enter Elbeyli, a district in the southeastern province of Kilis.

"The 23 suspects believed to be members of the Daesh terrorist group were caught," was the General Staff's written statement on its website, with no further details.

Daesh is the Arabic acronym for IS, commonly used by Turkish officials to refer to IS.

Turkey was pressured to enhance its security measures against suspected IS militants operating in the country, following criticism it was too slow in discerning the threat.

Turkey escalated its efforts against terrorist militants, following persistent criticism of its deficient control of jihadist fighters from crossing its volatile border with Syria.

The increased security measures came after numerous deadly terrorist attacks against Turkey which were attributed to IS militants last year in Sanliurfa, Ankara and in Istanbul this month. Enditem