Amid anti-Turkey campaign, ID card found on ISIS terrorist turns out to be counterfeit


A document found on a dead Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) militant after the latest ISIS attack on Kobani was stolen, fake and expired. It was claimed that ISIS militants passed through the Mürşitpınar border crossing in the Suruç district of Şanlıurfa province to reach Kobani.The smear campaign led by some media outlets and political components after the latest ISIS attack on Kobani, which led to further accusations of Turkey's link with the terrorist organization, has been refuted. A residence permit found on a dead ISIS militant's body after the attack was cited in printed and social media as an alleged link between Turkey and ISIS. However, reportedly, Ahmed al-Hassan, whose name is printed on the document, is actually a former Free Syrian Army member who fled to Turkey from his hometown Tal Abyad after ISIS attacks in 2013.Speaking to local media outlets on Wednesday, Sheikh indicated that all his identity cards, passports and important documents were left in his home in Tal Abyad and were confiscated by ISIS during the terrorist organization's attack on his town and his home."They [ISIS] could have seized this residence permit this way. The aforementioned document had already expired in 2010 so it couldn't be used to cross the Turkish border," he said, and added: "ISIS changed the original photo for a photo of an organization member who looks like me. That is to say, the photo on the residence permit does not belong to me. Nevertheless, the YPG [People's Protection Units] that controls Tal Abyad ransacked our home there."He also said that Turkey gave him an identity card after he applied for Turkish citizenship in 2001, and he has been a Turkish citizen since 2006. Sheikh said: "We were shuttling between Turkey and Syria before the civil war. After I got Turkish citizenship, we bought a house in Şanlıurfa. Then we came to Şanlıurfa following the outbreak of the civil war."Some international media outlets, including Reuters and the BBC, claimed that ISIS militants had entered Kobani through Turkey's Mürşitpınar border crossing in the Suruç district of the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa. The claims were strongly denied later throughout the day by Turkish officials. Video footage refuting the allegations was later provided by Anadolu Agency. Later, YPG spokesman Redur Xelili also confirmed that ISIS terrorists entered Kobani from Jarablous, not Turkey.Some Turkish media outlets, including the Yurt daily and Iran-linked Ehlibeyt Haber, reported the same accusation on Saturday and used the residence permit that was found on the dead ISIS militant in the Kobani attack.Turkey has been doing its part to identify and deliver potential foreign fighters seeking to cross the border to Syria to join ISIS despite little cooperation in intelligence sharing by Western countries. Being one of the first countries to list ISIS as a terrorist organization, Turkey has deported over 1,400 people thought to be foreigners seeking to join ISIS by passing through Turkey so far and banned the entrance of over 13,000 people into the country.