Ankara, Sep 3 (IANS): The Turkish police have detained 10 suspects over their alleged links to a network accused of orchestrating a failed coup attempt in 2016.

The suspects allegedly had organisational ties with people who act as private imams for the Gulen movement, according to the police on Friday.

They were detained during a police operation in the southeastern Gaziantep province targeting the movement's "private structure" in three cities, Xinhua news agency reported.

Ankara accuses the US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen and his network of infiltrating into the state bureaucracy and masterminding the coup bid on July 15, 2016, in which 250 people were killed.

The Turkish government launched a massive crackdown on Gulen's supporters at home after the coup attempt and issued arrest warrants for suspects abroad.

However, Washington is reluctant to extradite the self-exiled Islamic cleric, saying that Ankara has not presented sufficient evidence against him.