Turkish authorities have ordered the arrest of 192 people on suspicion of links to a US-based cleric who accuses him of masterminding the coup attempt in 2016, local newspaper Harbit reported Tuesday.
Police have regularly launched operations against followers of the cleric Fathullah Gulen since the attempted coup and have gained momentum recently. Authorities in Istanbul and Aden ordered the arrest of more than 100 military personnel last week.
The newspaper said that the Ankara prosecutor's office said he ordered the arrest of 50 suspects in the ranks of the army, including three Lftantant and 47 Sergeant, in addition to 55 people accused of using the application Baylok for correspondence.
Turkey banned using the Bayluk application in the wake of the coup attempt, saying Gulen's supporters used it on July 15, 2016, when a group of rogue soldiers tried to overthrow the government and killed some 250 people.
Gulen denied the charges and condemned the coup attempt. Gulen is a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and has been living in his voluntary exile in the United States since 1999.
The newspaper "Hurriet" that the prosecutor in the central province of Konya ordered the arrest of 50 people, including members of the army and contacts in the Gulen network.
The prosecutor in Mugla province ordered the arrest of 15 soldiers and his counterpart in the Kouja Eli province ordered arrest of 22 people, all of them military personnel.
Authorities in Turkey have jailed more than 77,000 people pending trial and have isolated or suspended some 150,000 government, military and other personnel as part of the post-coup clean-up.
Human rights groups and Turkey's Western allies have expressed concern over the campaign, saying Erdogan is taking the failed coup as a pretext to crush his opponents.
The government said security measures were necessary in light of the magnitude of the security threat facing the country.
