Three Russians Arrested in Turkey Over ISIS Terror Links
It's unclear whether arrests were directly linked to Tuesday's bomb in Istanbul.
— -- Three Russian citizens have been arrested in southern Turkey during a raid on a suspected ISIS terror cell, following Tuesday’s deadly suicide bombing in Istanbul, according to Turkish media reports.
Turkey’s Dogan news agency quoted a statement from military authorities saying the three men had been arrested in the southern province of Adana on suspicion of belonging to the terror group.
Russia’s consulate in the western city of Antalya confirmed to the Russian state news agency, RIA Novosti, that three of its citizens had been detained, but said it was still clarifying the reasons for their arrest.
A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday on Istanbul’s Sultanahmet Square in the city’s main tourist district, killing at least 11 people and wounding about a dozen others, mostly foreign tourists.
Turkish officials identified the bomber to ABC News as Nabil Fadli, a Saudi-born man, and said he had links to ISIS in Syria.
It was unclear whether today’s arrests were directly linked to the Istanbul bombing.
Hundreds of Russians, mostly from the country’s restive Caucasus region, have joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq; Russian authorities have estimated that as many 1,500 Russian citizens are fighting for the group there.