FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a news conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (not pictured) in Budapest, Hungary November 7, 2019. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo/File Photo
November 11, 2019
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey has started the repatriation of captured Islamic State militants, state broadcaster TRT Haber said on Monday, after the Turkish interior minister warned last week that Ankara would do so even if the prisoners had their citizenships revoked.
It was not immediately clear how many jihadists would be repatriated. President Tayyip Erdogan was cited as saying on Friday that there are 1,201 Islamic State prisoners in Turkish prisons, while Turkey had captured 287 militants in Syria.
(Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
