Turkish Airlines said Monday it had fired 211 employees over suspected links to US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen and behaviour "conflicting with the interest of our country" in the wake of last week's coup.

The flag carrier said their contracts were terminated due to "the non-fulfillment of performance criteria and in line with the necessary actions we are taking against the FETO structure, attitudes and behaviour conflicting with the interest of our country and company".

The authorities accuse 75-year-old Gulen of running a group it labels the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO) that was behind the coup, and Ankara has demanded that Washington extradite him.

The preacher -- who lives in a secluded compound in rural Pennsylvania and whose foundation runs a global network of schools, charities and media interests -- has strongly denied the accusations against him.

In a statement signed by the airline's media relations unit, Turkish Airlines stressed that it stands "united with all of the heroic and honourable Turkish people" against the coup plotters' "malevolent illegal attempt".

"Under any circumstances, we have and will continue to fulfil our responsibility to contribute to democracy."

Turkey detains fugitive soldiers over Erdogan attack plot
Ankara (AFP) July 25, 2016 - Turkey detained seven fugitive soldiers Monday on suspicion of taking part in an attack on the hotel where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was staying when the failed coup kicked off.

The soldiers had been on the run for 10 days since the July 15 putsch, hiding in caves and countryside in the wild landscape above the popular Aegean holiday resort of Marmaris.

Erdogan had been staying in the resort at the start of his annual summer holiday when the coup erupted. He has said his swift escape just before the attack saved him from being killed or taken hostage.

According to official media, the team of rebel commandos launched a gun attack on the hotel minutes after he left, killing two police.

The soldiers were detained during a huge search operation in the rugged hills around Marmaris targeting those behind the attack, the state-run Anadolu agency said.

Ten suspects are still on the run, it added.

Three were detained during a traffic check in the Cetibeli district of Marmaris and four more shortly afterwards.

Turkey's NTV television described the captured commandos as an "assassination team" but Anadolu said they planned to hold the president captive.

Erdogan and his family entourage, including his son-in-law, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, left the resort by plane for Istanbul from the nearby Dalaman airport shortly before the attack on the hotel.

Albayrak told CNN-Turk television Monday that they had travelled from Marmaris to a waiting plane in Dalaman by helicopter, choosing the route at the last moment.

"We decided Dalaman, and landed. We did not even decide which city we would go to until the last seconds," he said.

"But we planned for it. I speak for all those there. Everyone was relaxed and quiet in an unbelievable way. There was no fear or worry. We were very relaxed."

The president has said that if he had waited 15 minutes more, he would have been killed or taken hostage.

The Dogan news agency published a picture of the three of the detained soldiers in the back of a police van, looking bedraggled after 10 days on the run.

Some analysts have expressed surprise the coup plotters failed to make a faster effort to prevent the president from escaping to Istanbul, where he was given a rapturous welcome by supporters and immediately set to work on countering the coup.

However other sources have suggested this was because the timing of the coup was brought forward at the last minute as Turkey's intelligence agency had got wind of it.