Turkey detains Japanese man 'seeking to join ISIS' in Syria

Turkey detains Japanese man 'seeking to join ISIS' in Syria

Wednesday 23 March 2016

(Qasioun) - Turkish security forces detained a Japanese citizen on suspicion of seeking to cross the border into Syria to join Islamic state.

The young man aged 24, named as M.M., was detained late on Tuesday in the Nizip district of the southern city of Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border.

According to Doğan News Agency, he had admitted to wanting to travel to Syria after getting to know an unnamed contact by telephone and then agreeing the cross the frontier.

He will be deported from Turkey back to Japan once the investigation is completed, the agency added.

It said he was detained during a routine check by the Turkish gendarmerie while being driven towards the border settlement of Karkamış.

The official Anadolu Agency said police had confirmed his contacts with the group by examining messages on his mobile phone.

Images published by Turkish agencies showed the bespectacled young man kneeling in the middle of the road with his hands above his head, guarded by an armed soldier.

Turkish officials said security forces on Tuesday arrested 10 suspected ISIS members at the Syrian border in the Gaziantep region, including a would-be suicide bomber. Their nationalities were not disclosed.