Turkey detains Indonesians suspected of trying to join ISIL

Indonesia confirmed on Friday that up to 32 Indonesians had been detained in Turkey or gone missing after being suspected of trying to cross into Syria to join the armed group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters that a group of 16 Indonesians, most of them women and children, had been arrested by Turkish authorities this week.

"We have obtained information that they were indeed trying to cross into Syria," she said, adding that Indonesia would send a team to aid a Turkish investigation.

Marsudi said 16 other Indonesian citizens who went missing from a tour group last week had yet to be located, and that Turkish authorities could not confirm if they were still in Turkey or had crossed into Syria.

Indonesia’s national police chief Badrodin Haiti said Thursday the groups were suspected of trying to join ISIL.

On Friday, a Turkish news channel also released video that appears to show a man helping three British schoolgirls on their way to join ISIL in Syria.

A Haber television said that the video was filmed in Gaziantep on Turkey's border with Syria by the man, who was later detained by Turkish authorities.

Turkish authorities said the man was working for the intelligence service of a country that is part of the anti-ISIL coalition, but did not publicly name the country. On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the man was a Syrian citizen.

Wire services