LONDON: Prime Minister David Cameron will use talks in Ankara yesterday to ask Turkey to supply Britain with more and swifter information about Britons fighting in Syria and Iraq with Islamic State (IS), his spokesman said.
He is also likely to raise reports that Turkey handed over two captured British IS militants to Islamic State in October as part of a swap to secure the release of Turkish hostages, without consulting Britain.
“Counter-terror is front and centre,” Cameron’s spokesman told reporters in London, describing the visit’s purpose.
Cameron is due to meet Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on arrival in Ankara and have an evening meeting with President Tayyip Erdogan.
Asked whether the British leader would raise the case of the two British jihadis, Cameron’s spokesman said: “They’ll discuss the full range of counterterror-related issues.
The spokesman suggested talks on the subject would be aimed at ensuring such an episode was not repeated.
Britain said last month it was facing its greatest national security threat, in part because of the risk that Britons who return from fighting with IS could launch attacks on home soil.
Many of the about 500 Britons who authorities believe have travelled to the region have used Turkey as a transit point and around half that number are believed to have returned to Britain.
Last French hostage Lazarevic freed: Hollande
PARIS: France’s only remaining hostage held abroad, Serge Lazarevic, who was kidnapped in Mali in 2011, has been freed and is in “relatively good health”, French President Francois Hollande said yesterday. “Our hostage Serge Lazarevic, our last hostage is free,” Hollande said. “There are no more French hostages in any country in the world.”
Hollande said Lazarevic would be met by his daughter in the Nigerian capital Niamey before making his way back to France where he and his family would be welcomed by the president.
“He is in relatively good health, despite the gruelling conditions of his long captivity,” said Hollande.
Lazarevic, who has dual French and Serbian citizenship, was the last French hostage still being held worldwide, after hiker Herve Gourdel was abducted in Algeria and beheaded in September by Islamic State-linked militants.
Several French citizens have been kidnapped in recent years, mostly in Africa where up to 15 were held in 2013.
Agencies
