Turkish authorities have detained a Belgian man of Moroccan origin charged with the suspicion that he scouted out the target sites for Islamic State in attacks that killed 130 people in Paris, reports Dogan news agency.
The 26-year-old was detained at a luxury hotel in the coastal city of Antalya, Dogan said, without citing its sources.
The report said two other men, both Syrian citizens, were also detained on a nearby highway on suspicion that they had been sent by Islamic State in Syria to ensure the man’s safe passage across the border and were planning to meet him.
Counter-terrorism police first became aware of the man when he arrived on a flight to Antalya and tracked him to the hotel in the Manavgat district of the city, Dogan said.
Turkish authorities also deported a group of Moroccans, detained at Istanbul’s main airport this week over suspected links to Islamic State. The eight, who said they had arrived at Ataturk airport on Tuesday night from Casablanca for a holiday, were detained by border police and questioned by profiling experts who flagged them as suspected militants, a government official said.
