Headlines
Turkey, US to sign agreement against fighters joining IS
Turkey, US to sign agreement against
fighters joining IS
Ankara, May 5 Turkey and the US are planning to sign an agreement for
cooperation on sharing systematic information about actual and suspected
foreign fighters who want to join ranks of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist
group in Syria and Iraq.
"We are working now with government of Turkey on specific details on how
we can better share information about people we know to be extremists, people
we suspected being extremists," daily Hurriyet quoted the US Ambassador to
Turkey John Bass as saying.
The ambassador cited the mechanism that will enable anti-IS coalition members
to share information about suspected foreign fighters quickly, so that they
will be prevented before crossing into Syria and Iraq, the ambassador said.
"What we really focused on is how we can improve the coordination between
our governments and other members of the coalition to reduce those
understanding time lags when actual potential foreign terrorist fighters are
moving," the ambassador said.
Turkey and the US were enhancing cooperation as part of efforts to defeat and
degrade the IS in Syria and Iraq, with an agreement signed in February to train
and equip the Syrian rebels in a military base in Hirfanli of central Anatolian
Kirsehir province of Turkey.
Turkey has beefed up security measures to prevent foreign fighters from
crossing into Syria through Turkish territory amid Western countries' criticism
that Ankara did not make its best to stem foreign fighters from joining ranks
of the IS in Syria.
Ankara often calls on European countries to share more information on suspected
foreign fighters and asks for stopping them before they travel to Turkey.
In April, coalition forces against the IS militants formed a working group
"Foundation of the Counter-ISIL Foreign Terrorist Fighters Working
Group" to stem flow of foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq in a meeting
in the Turkish largest city of Istanbul.