Turkish police arrested 19 foreign nationals who have been allegedly in contact with Daesh terrorists in conflict zones during a citywide operation targeting 24 suspects in the capital Ankara, authorities announced Thursday.
Ankara Police Department's counterterrorism branch teams have been working on deciphering the activities of the Daesh terrorist organization and apprehending possible suspects.
All 19 foreign nationals, marked as “foreign terrorist militants” as per intelligence reports and analyses, are to be delivered to the Provincial Migration Department for deportation after interrogations, the police said, noting that teams were currently after five other suspects who fled during the operation.
Turkish police earlier this month revealed it had captured a senior figure of the terrorist group in Istanbul.
A 36-year-old Tunisian national identified as M.B., who used the code name Abu Huzaifah, served as a so-called “qadi” or judge for the terrorist group in Tal Abyad, Manbij and Raqqa in Syria between 2014 and 2018. He was caught in an operation aided by the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) on Feb. 24.
Interrogation of his accomplices revealed he had ongoing ties to Daesh cadres in Syria and his contacts in Türkiye.
Earlier in 2023, police had apprehended in Istanbul another Daesh terrorist who was preparing for an attack.
In 2013, Türkiye became one of the first countries to declare Daesh a terrorist group. The country has since been attacked by Daesh multiple times, with over 300 people killed and hundreds more injured in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks and four armed assaults. As a result, Türkiye launched operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks, including several counterterrorism operations in Syria.
Terrorists from Daesh and other groups like the PKK and its Syrian wing, the YPG, rely on a network of members and supporters in Türkiye. In response, Ankara has been intensifying its crackdown on the terrorists and their links at home, conducting pinpoint operations and freezing assets to eliminate the roots of the terrorist groups.
