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Turkey Cannot Confirm IS Video of Alleged Soldiers' Killings


FILE - People scuffle as Turkish police detain protesters, Dec. 23, 2016, on Istiklal avenue in Istanbul, during a protest in reaction to a video released the previous day by the Islamic State group purportedly showing two captured Turkish soldiers being burned alive, and against the Turkish government's lack of immediate reaction. Turks reacted angrily on December 23 on social media to the video, while awaiting an official reaction from the government. The 19-minute video, showing two uniformed men being hauled from a cage before being bound and torched, was posted on jihadist websites and supposedly shot in the IS-declared "Aleppo Province" in northern Syria.
FILE - People scuffle as Turkish police detain protesters, Dec. 23, 2016, on Istiklal avenue in Istanbul, during a protest in reaction to a video released the previous day by the Islamic State group purportedly showing two captured Turkish soldiers being burned alive, and against the Turkish government's lack of immediate reaction. Turks reacted angrily on December 23 on social media to the video, while awaiting an official reaction from the government. The 19-minute video, showing two uniformed men being hauled from a cage before being bound and torched, was posted on jihadist websites and supposedly shot in the IS-declared "Aleppo Province" in northern Syria.

A government official says Turkey has no information to confirm a video released by the Islamic State group that purportedly shows two Turkish soldiers being burned alive.

However, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus on Tuesday warned journalists and social media users not to share the alleged video, saying it served terror purposes to "demoralize the Turkish public.''

Kurtulmus says: "there is no confirmed information from the Turkish Armed Forces or the National Defense Ministry concerning this video.''

Turkey restricted access to social media websites for several hours last week after the release of the video, which purports to show the killing of two soldiers captured in northern Syria.

Turkey sent ground troops into Syria in August to support Syrian opposition forces trying to clear a border area of IS militants.

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