Turkey has arrested 6,000 people after a failed coup, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing to purge state bodies of the “virus” that caused the revolt.
Mr. Erdogan’s top military aide, Col. Ali Yazici is among those now in custody.
The overall death toll for the weekend violence has risen to 290, the foreign ministry said.
Security forces are reported to have met resistance from some coup plotters who were being arrested.
Warning shots were fired at Istanbul’s second largest airport, and also at a military base in central Konya province, unnamed officials said.
“We will continue to cleanse the virus from all state institutions, because this virus has spread. Unfortunately like a cancer, this virus has enveloped the state,” the BBC quoted Mr. Erdogan as saying to mourners at a funeral in Istanbul for victims of the coup.
Mr. Erdogan broke down in tears while speaking at the funeral of a close political ally, his campaign manager Erol Olcak, and his teenage son.The President said he would take the country forward in “unity and solidarity.”
