ISTANBUL: Turkish soldiers killed four suspected militants of the militant Islamic State on Saturday and authorities detained 11 demonstrators a day before leaders of the G-20 group of economic powerhouses meet for a summit overshadowed by the slaughter in Paris.

The Anadolu Agency said two cars believed to be carrying IS militants approached an armoured military vehicle, ignored warnings to stop and opened fire on the soldiers.

The soldiers responded, killing four militants inside one of the cars; the second car escaped, Anadolu said.

The incident occurred close to a military border outpost near the town of Oguzeli, in Gaziantep province — some 700 kilometres east of the Mediterranean coastal resort where US President Barack Obama and other leaders of the world’s top 20 economies will meet on Sunday and Monday.

Police arrested four demonstrators outside a domestic flights terminal at Antalya airport, near the conference venue, Anadolu said.

“Murderer US get out of the Middle East,” said placards held up by protesters, the private Dogan news agency said.

Seven other demonstrators were detained in Istanbul after protesting outside the German and British consulates. The war in Syria — Turkey’s neighbour — and Islamic extremism had loomed as major items on the G-20 agenda, but that gained greater urgency following the terror attacks in Paris.

Turkish security forces have carried out sweeps against suspected IS militants in the weeks leading to the summit meeting, detaining dozens of people, including some 20 suspects who were nabbed in and around Antalya.

European governments are talking to Turkey about stemming the deluge of refugees spilling into Europe. The European Union has offered cash and promises of progress on Turkey’s bid to join the club, in exchange for a greater effort to keep the migrants in Turkey.

More than 2 million refugees are already in Turkey, which has spent more than $8 billion since 2011 caring for them.

“Of course the economy is the G-20’s real reason for being but in our day it is not possible to consider the economy separately from politics, social developments and security,” Erdogan said recently.

“The Syrian issue has created humanitarian dimension, a terror dimension and economic impact”.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2015