US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen at his home in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, US. File/Reuters

Gulf Today Report

Turkey has ordered the arrest of 238 people over alleged links to a group blamed for a 2016 coup bid. Tens of thousands of people have been detained on similar grounds since the coup attempt.

State-owned Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday that Turkey has ordered the arrest in an operation targeting suspects in the military allegedly linked to a preacher who Ankara says was behind a 2016 failed coup.

Turkey orders the arrest of hundreds of military over alleged coup ties .

The operation, led by prosecutors in the western city of Izmir, was spread over 60 provinces. It said the investigation targeted suspects in the army and air force, was part of a four-year-old crackdown against the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. He denies involvement in the July 2016 putsch attempt, in which more than 250 people were killed, according to the Adadolu news agency.

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Anadolu said 160 people had been detained in the latest police raids, ordered by prosecutors in Izmir. It said suspects were also targeted in northern Cyprus, where the Turkish military is deployed, according to Reuters.

Among the suspects were 218 serving military personnel, including six colonels, three lieutenant colonels and nine majors, Anadolu said.

Since the coup attempt, about 80,000 people have been held pending trial and some 150,000 civil servants, military personnel and others have been sacked or suspended. More than 20,000 people had been expelled from the Turkish military.