UPDATE - 21 FETO suspects arrested in raids across Turkey

UPDATES WITH NUMBER OF ARRESTS, EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Serdar Acil and Aylin Sirikli

ANKARA (AA) – Twenty-one out of 41 suspects, accused of having links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), have been arrested on Tuesday in early morning raids across Turkey.

Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office issued on Tuesday arrest warrants for a total of 41 suspects as part of an ongoing FETO probe.

Police have launched simultaneous operations in seven provinces in the early hours of the day to hold the suspected employees of the Court of Accounts.

Twenty out of 21 suspects were held in Ankara while the search for the others is ongoing.

According to police sources, seven suspects were earlier dismissed from their duties following the July 2016 foiled coup.

Turkey has remanded 47,155 suspects accused of having links to the FETO since the failed attempt, the nation's interior minister said Sunday.

According to the Turkish government, the FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup, which left 249 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara has said FETO is behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.