Several suspects detained in police operation in Georgian Pankisi Gorge - TV
TBILISI. June 15 (Interfax) - Several persons suspected of recruiting local residents for joining ISIL fighters in Syria have been detained in a police operation in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge, the Georgian television station Rustavi-2 has reported.
It said up to one hundred police and Spetsnaz officers searched homes in the village of Jokola. Reportedly, one detainee is a family member of ISIL co-leader Tarkhan Batirashvili, aka Abu Omar al-Shishani.
Pankisi Gorge residents are planning to stage a protest and to demand that the detainees be freed on Monday, the television said.
According to the Georgian media, detentions of suspected ISIL abettors are in progress in Tbilisi and the Telavi district of Georgia.
Georgian Interior Minister Vakhtang Gomelauri has declined to comment and said the police will release a statement later.
