Turkey's security forces detained nearly 500 people attempting to cross the border from war-torn Syria yesterday, the AFP (Agence France-Presse) website reports today (July 19, 2015).
Turkey's army said, "488 people were detained by the land forces command border units while trying to cross into Turkey from Syria and 26 while attempting to cross into Syria from Turkey.
Turkey -- a member of NATO -- has long been under international pressure to tighten the security of its volatile 566-mile border with Syria to cut the flow of jihadists who try to join ranks of Islamic State (IS) militants who have made recent gains in Iraq and Syria.
In an apparent bid to deflect criticism from the United States and other nations hostile toward the IS, Turkish authorities have arrested dozens of suspected IS militants during the past week.
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