ANKARA, Turkey – Police on Tuesday arrested 10 people suspected of links to an al-Qaida terrorist network in southern Turkey, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
Police captured nine of the suspects in simultaneous raids in the southern city of Adana and another one in the city of Hatay, near the Syrian border, it said. Police would not say whether the suspects were preparing to stage an attack but no weapons or explosives were seized in the raids.
Adana is home to the Incirlik Air Base, which is used by the United States for the transfer of non-combat supplies to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Authorities have said Islamic militants tied to al-Qaida planned to attack Incirlik in the past but were deterred by high security.
Homegrown Islamic militants tied to the al-Qaida attacked the British consulate, a British bank and two synagogues in Istanbul, killing 58 people in 2003. In 2008, an attack blamed on al-Qaida-affiliated militants outside the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul left three assailants and three policemen dead.
Turkish authorities have said dozens of Islamic militants have received training in Afghanistan.
However, Al-Qaida's austere and violent interpretation of Islam receives little public backing in Turkey.
Several other radical Islamic groups are also active in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim but officially secular country.
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