Turkish security forces "neutralise five Daesh members" in Hatay

Turkish security forces late on Saturday killed a suspected Daesh member and detained four others believed to have been planning a bomb attack, local authorities said.

Talking to reporters in Ankara, before leaving for Singapore, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that, “This morning, five Daesh members were ‘neutralised’ while attempting to cross the border illegally. It’s under control”.

He added that Turkey is constantly under the threat of terror due to its neighbours in the region. 

“Unfortunately, each and every terrorist organisation takes over the rule from the other and there is serious instability. The innocent, who live there, pay the price for it, and so does Turkey”

Turkish forces in the southern Hatay region bordering Syria stopped a vehicle carrying five suspected Daesh members after receiving intelligence that "they had come to our country to carry out a bomb attack", the regional governor's office said.

Four of the suspects gave themselves up but security forces opened fire on the fifth individual after he failed to heed warnings to surrender and attempted to attack them, it said.

Identified as a Syrian national, he later died in hospital despite efforts to save his life, the statement said.

The nationalities of the other four were not specified.

The statement said investigations were continuing into the incident.

Meanwhile, two foreign citizens who are also suspected members of Daesh were detained on Thursday in Istanbul.

They are accused of planning an attack and police seized an automatic rifle, two pistols and ammunition in the raid, it said. 

The pair had entered Turkey illegally, it added, without specifying their nationality.

Turkey was hit by a succession of attacks in 2016 that left hundreds dead in the bloodiest year of terror strikes in its history.

Most of the the attacks were claimed by Daesh as well as the PKK.

The PKK have waged an armed campaign against the Turkish state that has claimed thousands of lives during the past three decades. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by the US, NATO, EU and Turkey

In one of the bloodiest strikes, a gunman opened fire on a nightclub in Istanbul just 75 minutes into New Year's Day in 2017, killing 39 people, mainly foreigners.

There has since been a lull in similar attacks, but tensions remain high and Turkish police launch raids almost daily against suspected Daesh cells across the country.

A 24-year-old Turkish police officer was stabbed to death in Istanbul last weekend by a suspected Daesh member who had been arrested on suspicions he was planning a suicide attack.