ANKARA // A foreign intelligence operative suspected of helping three British schoolgirls join ISIL in Syria has been detained.
Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday that the suspect worked for the intelligence agency of a country that is part of the US-led coalition fighting ISIL.
Mr Cavusoglu did not identify the country but said it was not the United States or a member of the European Union.
“Do you know who helped those girls? He was captured. He was someone working for the intelligence [service] of a country in the coalition,” Mr Cavusoglu told the A-Haber channel in an interview published by the official Anatolia news agency.
He did not say where or how the alleged spy had been captured, but said he had informed his British counterpart Philip Hammond of the development.
British teenagers Kadiza Sultana, Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, crossed into Syria after boarding a flight from London to Istanbul on February 17.
They took a bus from Istanbul to the southeastern Turkish city of Sanliurfa close to the Syrian border from where they are believed to have crossed the frontier.
Mr Cavusoglu’s comments come amid growing frustration among Turkish officials over repeated criticism from the West that Ankara is not doing enough to stop militants and their sympathisers crossing from Turkey into Syria.
Ankara had last month accused Britain of a “reprehensible” delay in informing the Turkish authorities over the departure to its territory of the three teenage girls.
Turkish officials say they have stepped up efforts to stop the flow of militants but need to be given intelligence by Western partners in advance of their arrival in order to stop them.
Along with the US and EU states, Gulf nations including the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been involved in the coalition against ISIL.
* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
