DM Monitoring
ANKARA: Turkey dealt a heavy blow to the Daesh terrorist group in nationwide operations in February and prevented potential terror attacks.
The security forces thwarted attacks in many cities, especially in Istanbul, the capital Ankara and the southern Adana province.
A total of 165 suspects were detained in operations against Daesh last month, 55 terror group members were remanded and documents, arms and ammunition belonging to the group were seized, according to information compiled by Anadolu Agency. Daesh assassin arrested: An alleged assassin linked to the Daesh terror group was arrested in the northwestern Yalova province, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced on Feb. 1.
In a statement, local police later announced that a total of 14 suspects – 12 Iraqi nationals, one Moroccan and one Turkish national – including the alleged assassin, had been arrested in the Yalova-based operation, of whom eight had been remanded in custody and another six suspects were released on bail.
The suspected assassin, who was identified as A.Y., is also thought to have been in charge of smuggling militants whose Daesh links have been exposed to and from Turkey and Europe. The statement said another suspect, identified as A.G., who had been caught, was thought to be a high-profile member of the terror group. A.Y., according to the statement, was caught while planning to flee Turkey for Iraq.
Authorities confiscated firearms during the operations, as well as 433 fake passports and 346 fake IDs, along with equipment used to make fake passports and numerous other documents.
So-called “deputy education minister” nabbed: A foreign national Daesh terror suspect was nabbed by Turkish police teams on Feb. 3 in northwestern Turkey.
The Jordanian suspect, identified only with initials A.Z.A.A.D., was arrested in an anti-terror operation in the Sakarya province, according to the Interior Ministry.
It noted that the suspect was “the group’s so-called deputy education minister in charge of all educational institutions” in areas Daesh invaded in Iraq and Syria between 2014-2017.
The ministry also said the terror suspect brutally murdered people he took prisoner in the same areas and published footage of the acts on social media.
Finance chief arrested: A suspect, who was determined to be the so-called head of “financial affairs” of the terror group in Syria’s Raqqa, was arrested in the southern Mersin province, the local gendarmerie command said in a statement on Feb. 17.
He was nabbed in an operation at his address.
A mobile phone and digital materials were also seized during the search of his premises.
