The number of foreigners visiting Turkey plummeted nearly 38 percent in August, with tourism battered by the July failed coup and security concerns after attacks, statistics showed Thursday.

Turkish courts have placed 32,000 suspects under arrest ahead of trial on charges of links to a group run by US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who is blamed for the July 15 coup, the justice minister said Wednesday.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told NTV television that 70,000 people had been investigated after the coup and of them 32,000 remanded in custody. 

Turkey said Wednesday that Ankara-backed Syrian rebels would lead any operation to capture a key town held by Islamic State (IS) jihadists well inside the territory of its conflict-torn neighbor.

A mentally disturbed Turkish man wielding a knife tried to storm the Israeli embassy in Ankara on Wednesday but was shot by police before reaching the building, Turkish and Israeli officials said.

The man, armed with a 30-centimeter (12-inch) knife, ran towards the embassy shouting slogans and was shot in the leg, the governor's office in the Turkish capital said in a statement.

Turkish schools reopened Monday for the first time since the July 15 coup following a summer which saw tens of thousands of teachers sacked or suspended over "links" to the plotters or to Kurdish rebels. 

Turkish police have detained an assailant on charges of kicking and injuring a young woman for wearing shorts on an Istanbul bus, local media reported on Sunday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday defended the suspension of 28 mayors over alleged links to Kurdish militants or U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, saying it was a long-overdue move. 

A car bomb exploded Monday outside the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) headquarters in the eastern Turkish city of Van, wounding 48 people including two police officers, local authorities said.

Berlin said Thursday that Ankara will allow German lawmakers to visit a NATO airbase near Syria after refusing access amid a months-long row over Germany recognizing the World War I-era massacre of Armenians as "genocide."

Turkey's foreign minister on Wednesday pledged cooperation with the top European rights watchdog to ensure the effort to bring the leaders of July's failed coup to justice is clear and straightforward.