Turkey nabs Russian Daesh terrorist sought by Interpol

Turkish police detained a Russian Daesh terrorist sought with an Interpol Red Notice in the capital Ankara, reports said Thursday.

Ankara police launched an extensive operation after receiving intelligence that the terrorist, A.R., who actively took part as a Daesh member in Syria, unlawfully entered Turkey and arrived in Ankara, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.

They launched a raid on the address where the terrorist was residing and confiscated $4,800 (TL 42,598), TL 16,800 ($1,893), digital materials and a fake Syrian id under his name.

He was taken to the counterterrorism police headquarters after conducting routine medical checkups.

In 2013, Turkey became one of the first countries to declare Daesh a terrorist group.

The country 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.

In response, Turkey launched counterterrorism operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks.

In May, Ankara arrested a Daesh terrorist identified as the right-hand man of former terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. military operation in Syria in 2019. Reports said that Turkish intelligence played a key role in the death of al-Baghdadi by detaining and extraditing one of his aides to Iraq, who then provided U.S. authorities with critical information to help locate the vicious man.

Turkish security forces have nabbed at least 850 suspects with links to Daesh in the first three months of 2021, dealing a heavy blow to the terrorist group's presence in the country and its activities in the region.