Turkey 'charges 2 editors' over claims Ankara supplied arms to Syria jihadists

Istanbul: A court in Istanbul on Thursday charged two journalists from the opposition Cumhuriyet daily with spying after they alleged Turkey's secret services had sent arms to Islamist rebels in Syria, Turkish media reported.

Editor-in-chief Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, the paper's Ankara bureau chief, are accused of spying and "divulging state secrets", the reports said. Both men were taken into custody.

According to Cumhuriyet, Turkish security forces in January 2014 intercepted a convoy of trucks near the Syrian border and discovered boxes of what the daily described as weapons and ammunition to be sent to rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

It linked the seized trucks to the Turkish National Intelligence Organisation (MIT).

The revelations, published in May, caused a political storm in Turkey, with an enraged President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing Dundar would pay a "heavy price".