Turkey fires 9,000 plot suspects

Turkish officials have fired nearly 9,000 police officers, bureaucrats, and other workers and detained thousands of suspected plotters following a foiled coup against the government.

The state-run Anadolu news agency said a total of 8,777 employees attached to the interior ministry were dismissed, including 30 governors, 52 civil service inspectors, and 16 legal advisers, while other media reports said police and military police officers and coast guards were also removed from duty.

The government blamed Friday’s failed coup — which it says left 208 government supporters and 24 plotters dead — on backers of a US-based Muslim cleric who has become president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chief rival.