Army catches Turkish citizen, 13 foreigners set to join ISIL

ISTANBUL - Fourteen people, including one Turk, who were en route to joining the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been captured, the Turkish military said in a statement on its official website Feb. 11, as Turkey intensifies its efforts to cut the flow of recruits to the group.The group was caught in a neighborhood in the Oğuzeli district of the southeastern province of Gaziantep at noon on Feb. 9, the military statement said.Another Turkish citizen, identified as 38-year-old Musa Göktaş, was arrested late last month, according to a Feb. 4 media report, which said this was the first time a Turkish citizen was caught for such a reason.General Staff also announced that four other suspected ISIL members and five suspected members of ISIL were arrested in Gaziantep in the span of a week.Separately, the General Staff announced Feb. 7 that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) opened fire with an anti-aircraft gun in Şırnak, while a suspected member of ISIL surrendered with his weapons in Şanlıurfa, another southeastern Turkish province.