Turkey has detained a senior air force general and other officers accused of involvement in a failed military coup at a key air base used by US forces for raids in Syria, Turkish media reports say.
Local news papers, including Hurriyet Daily, saidbrigadier air force general Bekir Ercan Van was taken into custody Saturday along with over a dozen lower ranking at Incirlik Air Base in the southern province of Adana.
AFP quoted an unnamed Turkish official as saying that Ankara suspected Incirlik was used to refuel military aircraft hijacked by the putschists overnight Friday.
Last year, Turkey agreed to allow the United States to use Incirlik to carry out raids against purported Daesh targets in neighboring Iraq and Syria.
Incirlik is of strategic importance to Washingtons aerial military operations as it is home to A-10s, the most reliable manned aircraft the US uses in its military campaign in the two Arab states.
It is also one of six NATO sites in the region, which house tactical nuclear weapons.
On Saturday, Turkey said it managed to largely crush an attempted military coup launched by an army faction after a night of explosions, gunfire and tanks rolling along the streets of the capital, Ankara, and the main city of Istanbul.
Fierce clashes erupted between army forces and the soldiers involved in the foiled coup.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="555"]
A Turkish army armed vehicle drives in Istanbul on July 16, 2016. AFP[/caption]In the wake of the botched coup, Ankara has launched an intensive crackdown against the judiciary and the military, arresting about 3,000 soldiers, including officers, and dismissing almost a similar number of judges and prosecutors.
A total of 265 people were killed in the attempted coup dtat in Turkey.
According to the US consulate in Adana, Turkish officials had imposed a security lockdown on the air base in the wake of the coup, preventing all movements in or out of the site.The airspace around Incirlik airbase remained closed for a few hours.
The report on arrests inside Incirlik come as anumber of Turkish state officials, includingLabor and Social Security Minister Suleyman Soylu,have suggested that the US hadplayed a part in the failed coup.
The accusations prompted US Secretary of State John Kerryto call Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and reject the claims as utterly false and harmful to our bilateral relations.
By Press TV
