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2nd LD: Turkish President Erdogan says to punish those involved in military coup attempt

Xinhua, July 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said here early Saturday that his holiday resort was bombed as soon as he left, vowing to finish the operation against coup plotters to keep the army "clean."

In televised remarks delivered soon after he landed at Istanbul Ataturk Airport, the president said the resort town of Marmaris in southwestern Turkey was bombed as the attackers thought he "was still there."

Erdogan vowed to finish the operation against the plotters in the military, saying "Our army is clean and no one can harm it."

He blamed the ongoing coup attempt in his country on the movement led by Turkey's Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen now living in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.

Ankara has been accusing the movement of running a parallel state and trying to topple the Turkish government.

"They are getting their order form Pensilvania," Erdogan said, referring to "a minority of group" within the military as part of the "parallel structure."

"Today the act is an uprising, what they do is a betrayal," he said, appealing to all the soldiers not to "put the guns against your mothers" and "against the nation."

The Turkish leader also revealed that his secretary general was taken away. "What are you going to do with my secretary general?" he asked.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has said the situation in Ankara was largely under control and around 120 people were arrested.

At least 60 people have been killed in Turkey as groups inside the army attempted to topple the government, according to the latest figure from the prosecutor's office.

A no-fly zone over Ankara has been declared. Endi