Turkey to deport Daesh suspect stuck at Greek border to US

A suspected member of Daesh, who has spent three days in no-man's-land between Turkey and Greece after Ankara tried to deport him, will be repatriated to the US, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

The United States agreed to take the man –– a US national –– in and would provide him with travel documents, the ministry said in a statement.

"The necessary legal procedures to send the foreign national terrorist to the US have started after the US guaranteed to let him in the country and issue his travel documents,” the ministry said in a statement.

The move comes a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met US President Donald Trump in Washington.

The man was stuck in the heavily-militarised zone after Turkey tried to expel him to Greece on Monday but Athens refused him entry.

Turkish media have identified him as 39-year-old Mohammad Darwis B and said he was an American citizen of Jordanian background.

The Ministry said Thursday that the man had asked to be deported to a “third country” and chose Greece.

He had been spotted at the no man’s land for three straight days. 

Media reports said Turkish authorities allowed him to spend the night in a vehicle where he was fed.

Darwis was deported from Turkey’s Pazar Kule border gate in Edirne, northwestern Turkey. In his first unsuccessful attempt to enter Greece, Greek authorities sent him back to the Turkish gate on foot. His second attempt, however, resulted in a stamp on his passport preventing him from entering Greece.

Turkey continues extradition of foreign terrorists

Turkey has engaged in a new push to deport foreign Daesh members who are held in Turkish prisons or in Syria since it entered the country's northeast to drive away YPG/PKK terrorists from the border area.

Three foreign Daesh suspects — from the US, Denmark and Germany — were deported on Monday, while an official said seven Germans would be expelled on Thursday. 

Turkey also plans to soon deport other alleged Daesh members, including two Irish and 11 French nationals.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry also said Thursday that a wanted Daesh suspect was detained by anti-terrorism police in a raid in Istanbul after he illegally crossed into Turkey from Syria.

The ministry said the man, it identified as Mevlut Cuskun, was being questioned by police.