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Turkey: We prevented 10,000 people from joining the jihadists

March 5, 2015 at 10:18 am

Turkey has stopped 10,000 people who intended to join armed groups in Syria and Iraq from entering the country, the defence minister said yesterday.

During a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Khaled Al-Obeidi in Baghdad, Ismet Yilmaz said that Ankara also deported about 2,200 people after it suspected that they were seeking to cross the border into Syria and join the insurgents there.

Al-Obeidi said: “No one [else] has anything to do with it. This is our battle, the battle of the Iraqi army,” denying the use of Turkish or other foreign troops.

Yilmaz is visiting Baghdad and Erbil to meet with senior Iraqi and Kurdish officials including Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi, Parliament Speaker Salim Al-Jabouri, and Interior Minister Mohammed Salem Ghaban.

The Turkish defence minister will also meet the President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani in Erbil.

Turkey shares its borders with both Syria and Iraq where Islamic State (ISIS) has taken control of large swathes of the countries. It has been accused of being too soft on militants who are accused of crossing into these war torn countries through Turkey.