Turkey deals heavy blow to ISIS terrorist group in September with arrests

Turkish security forces arrested at least 92 Daesh suspects across Turkey in September, including senior operatives and foreign nationals, according to Anadolu Agency (AA).

In a number of operations last month, the gendarmerie, police and border guards arrested suspects including Abdulhaliq Kurdi, the so-called “Sinjar military head” of the terrorist group in Iraq, his son Mehdi Kurdi, who was active in Tal-Afar for Daesh and Eyüp B., the group’s so-called senior operative in southern Turkey’s Adana.

The law enforcers also confiscated a large number of documents and digital material during the operations. At least 20 members of the organization were remanded into custody following a court ruling and some were deported. The others are still being investigated. Security forces arrested 24 suspects linked to Daesh in several provinces, including Istanbul, Ankara, the Black Sea province of Samsun, southeastern Adıyaman and eastern Bingöl. Documents belonging to the terror group were also recovered in the operations.

Ahmed Isa, also known as Abu Ayub, who was wounded in a bomb attack in 2015 while fighting alongside Daesh in Syria, was arrested by the security forces at a hospital in Adana. He reportedly entered Turkey illegally in 2017.

At least six out of seven Iraqi nationals, who were arrested in Samsun over their suspected links to Daesh, were also remanded into custody.

In the central Kırşehir province, three out of six suspects were detained over links to Daesh. A total of six Daesh suspects, who were arrested in Kocaeli, Sakarya, Kilis and Kayseri during counterterrorism operations, were also remanded pending trial.

Meanwhile, the trial of nine detainees out of 10 suspects is ongoing in central Konya. They were arrested in a counterterrorism operation against Daesh in the city’s Meram district in 2017. Five terrorists were “neutralized” in the operation. The Turkish authorities often use the word “neutralized” in their statements to imply that the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.

Also in September, in southern Adana province, a Syrian suspect who was allegedly a member of Daesh was sentenced to six years and three months in prison.

Source: Daily Sabah