ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey will begin to repatriate captured Islamic State militants to their home countries as of Monday, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu was quoted as saying by state media on Friday.

Turkey has long criticised its European allies for refusing to take back Islamic State fighters who are their citizens, and on Monday warned that Ankara would send captured jihadists back to their countries even if their citizenships have been revoked.

“We are telling them: ‘We’ll repatriate these people to you’, and we are starting as of Monday,” the state-run Anadolu news agency quoted Soylu as saying.