Turkish police apprehended a Daesh terrorist in Istanbul who was preparing to carry out an attack in Türkiye, security forces said Tuesday.
Security forces found that the man, a foreign national identified only by his initials M.A., shared propaganda on the terrorist group's media platforms encouraging acts of terrorism in Türkiye, especially in major tourist spots and crowded areas.
He was caught in a raid during which digital and other materials of the terrorist group were seized, along with knives that the suspect planned to use in a possible attack.
An assessment of the digital materials also revealed a video in which M.A. was seen making another suspect that had recently joined Daesh pledge allegiance to the organization.
The suspect was transferred to judicial officials and remanded in custody.
Two more Daesh terror suspects were caught by gendarmerie teams in operations in Türkiye's central Kayseri province.
Both suspects are Syrian nationals who were involved in the terrorist group's armed activities in Syria, according to security sources.
In another operation in the southern Mersin province, 10 more Daesh terrorists were detained and four were arrested.
Authorities found the terrorists were so-called chiefs of intelligence, logistics and financial structures within the organization and planning to carry out an attack on New Year’s Eve.
Terrorists from Daesh, along with other groups like the PKK/YPG, rely on a network of members and supporters in Türkiye. In response, Ankara has been intensifying its crackdown on both the terrorists and their links at home, conducting pinpoint operations and freezing assets in a bid to cut the legs out from under the terrorist groups.
Daesh emerged from the chaos of the civil war in neighboring Syria in the last decade and took over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed himself "caliph" of all Muslims from a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul that year.
Daesh's brutal rule, during which it killed and executed thousands of people in the name of its perverted interpretation of religion, came to an end in Mosul when Iraqi and international forces defeated the group there in 2017.
Its remaining thousands of militants have in recent years mostly hidden out in remote territory but are still able to carry out significant insurgent-style attacks.
Türkiye was one of the first countries to declare Daesh a terrorist group in 2013.
It has since been attacked by the terrorist group multiple times, with over 300 people killed and hundreds more injured in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks and four armed assaults. To foil the threat, Ankara launched counterterrorism operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks, eliminating nearly 17,000 terrorists from both Daesh and the PKK/YPG over the course of six years.
