Police detain 16 suspected Nusra Front members

Turkish police detained 16 people in the southeastern province of Adiyaman on Wednesday on suspicion of belonging to the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, state-run Anadolu Agency said.

Counter-terrorism police carried out simultaneous raids on 20 locations including in Adiyaman town centre and the Celikhan district, the agency said.

Turkey designates Nusra, which is one of the main parties fighting in the Syrian civil war, as a terrorist organisation.

The town of Adiyaman, with a largely pious population, made headlines last October when an Islamic State suicide bomber from there was blamed for the death of over 100 people after he blew himself up in a pro-Kurdish rally in the capital Ankara.