26 March 2018•Update: 26 March 2018
By Mustafa Yildiz, Serkan Guner, Abdullah Yildiz, Ekber Turkoglu and Zafer Fatih Beyaz
ANKARA
Police arrested 33 suspects across Turkey on Monday over suspected links to Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup, security officials said.
As part of an Ankara-based investigation into the terror group's secret network within the Turkish Air Force, police arrested 16 FETO suspects accused of using ByLock, an encrypted mobile phone application used by coup plotters, according to the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
The office had issued arrest warrants for 36 suspects in nine provinces, including the ByLock users.
Separately, in a central Kirsehir-based operation, security forces arrested 10 on-duty soldiers in simultaneous raids, said security sources, who refused to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
The arrests took place in Mersin, Hatay, Diyarbakir, Edirne, Canakkale and Agri provinces.
In the northern Tokat province, six out of seven FETO-linked terror suspects were arrested as part of an investigation into a "judges and prosecutors house" of the terror group, sources said.
Additionally, a fugitive businessman was rounded up in northwestern Edirne province when he was preparing to illegally cross into Greece.
FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
