Turkey jails 4 IS members over 2014 attack

A Turkish court on Wednesday sentences three members of the Islamic State group to multiple life jail terms and one other to several years in prison over a deadly gun attack in March 2014, reports say.

The attack in the central Anatolian region of Nigde left two Turkish security personnel and one civilian dead and is seen by the authorities as the first attack by IS inside the country.

The Nigde criminal court hands Cendrim Ramadani five life sentences and 174 years and six months in prison, Benyamin Xu four life sentences and 179 years and six months and Muhammed Zakiri one life sentence and 124 years and six months, the Dogan news agency reports.

The three suspects are found guilty of murdering public officials and seeking to disrupt order in the country. The sentences are believed to be the heaviest ever handed out to suspected jihadists.

The fourth suspect, Fuad Movsumov, is given 13 years and 9 months jail after being found guilty on lesser charges of being a member of a terror group.

All those sentenced are believed to be foreign nationals but their citizenship is not specified in the reports.

— AFP