French and U.S. intelligence officials reportedly alerted Turkey that a large number of "fighters" from Syria will sneak into Italy by boarding a vessel from Turkey. Turkish Coast Guard stormed a cargo vessel at a port in the southern Turkish city of Mersin on Monday, only to find out that the "fighters" were actually migrants from the war-torn country in pursuit of a better life in Europe. A total of 333 migrants including women and children were discovered in the Togo-flagged freighter. Turkish authorities were monitoring the activities of the vessel after French and U.S. intelligence warned that the ship, which departed from Syria, was carrying "fighters" that would purportedly launch attacks on European countries. As the ship dropped by the Mersin port, two small boats approached it. The Coast Guard then raided the vessel and the two boats, only to find migrants in the vessel and several other migrants in the smaller boats attempting to board the ship. A total of 15 people, including 11 Syrian nationals, were captured in the raid and they are accused of smuggling 333 migrants. Europe is on tenterhooks following brutal attacks in Paris claimed by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. Several raids last week targeting "radical" groups in France, Germany and Belgium netted suspects reportedly plotting attacks in those countries.
Turkey had came under fire after Hayat Boumeddiene, the wanted partner of one of three gunmen who launched attacks at Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket in Paris, crossed into Syria via Turkey days before the attacks, amid reports that she may have joined the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which has declared war against the West. The Foreign Ministry said French intelligence did not seek Turkey's interception of Boumeddiene, and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that Turkey was struggling to keep out those seeking to join ISIS from its 911-kilometer-long border with Syria. However, infiltrations cannot.
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