(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Turkish police have detained five men suspected of having ties to a group fighting with the Al Qaeda network in Afghanistan, a senior security official in Izmir in western Turkey said. "We detained five men from five different cities: Hatay, Istanbul, Kayseri, Antalya and Izmir," the official said.
The five, who were described as students, were taken to court after being arrested two days earlier in west and southwest Turkey.
"These people belong to an Aegean branch of Al Qaeda. The leader is currently in Afghanistan, fighting for Al Qaeda."
The leader of the group was named "Zekeriya" and served time in prison before joining the insurgency against Afghan and NATO-ISAF forces in Afghanistan, said the official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
One of the suspects, the official said, is a 23-year-old mathematics student who was designing computer programs aimed at jamming the flight controls of UAVs. He was also a bomb maker, the official said.
The others were involved in fund raising for the militants, he added.
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