ISTANBUL: Turkey has detained a Belgian citizen of Moroccan origin suspected of links to the Paris attacks and who was seeking to flee to Syria, a government official said on Saturday.

Ahmad Dahmani, 26, is accused of being “in contact” with the Islamist extremists who carried out the attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and were claimed by the militant Islamic State group, the official added.

He was detained close to the southern resort city of Antalya along with two others, reportedly Syrian citizens who were to help him cross the border into Syria.

“The security forces stated that Dahmani is an IS militant who was preparing to illegally cross the Turkish-Syrian border,” said the official.

“We believe that Dahmani was in contact with the terrorists who perpetrated the Paris attacks,” the source added, without giving further details. “The investigation continues”.

Pictures showed Dahmani — wearing a Ferrari sports jacket and with his hands behind his back — being led away by plain clothes police.The Dogan news agency reported earlier that Dahmani had carried out reconnaissance work to scout out targets for the attacks in Paris. However this was not confirmed by the government official.

Anti-terror police had followed Dahmani after he arrived at Antalya’s airport and checked into a five-star hotel in the luxury resort of Manavgat to the east of the city on November 16, Dogan said.

They then detained him and the two Syrians, who the report said had been tasked by the IS leadership to supply him with a fake passport and take Dahmani to safety in jihadist-controlled Syria, the report added.

It was not immediately clear when they had been detained. All three were taken to court and are in prison, the official added.

Turkish officials said he had arrived at Antalya’s airport on a flight from Amsterdam on Nov 14.

Antalya had only one week ago hosted — under the heaviest security — the annual Group of 20 summit of world leaders including US President Barack Obama and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Turkey has long been accused by its Western allies of failing to do enough to halt the flow of militants across its border to IS controlled-territory in northern Syria.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2015