Turkish security forces have prevented a terrorist attack on a series of churches and synagogues, as well as the Iraqi Embassy, in countrywide raids against the Daesh terrorist group, according to security sources.
In a joint operation conducted across nine provinces, the Turkish police and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) captured three high-ranking members of Daesh, along with 29 linked suspects, before they could act, security sources said Friday.
The so-called intelligence chiefs of Daesh’s domestic branch, Micbel al-Suveyhi, code-named “Abu Yakin al-Iraqi,” and Mohamed Hilaf Ebrahim Ebrahim, code-named “Abu Leys,” were plotting to attack churches and synagogues across Türkiye while Iybeh Elani, code-named “Abdullah al-Cumeyli," was to target the Iraqi Embassy in Ankara, sources informed.
Authorities seized countless digital materials belonging to the terrorist group during the raids.
Al-Suveyhi, Ebrahim and Elani all reportedly confessed to their involvement with Daesh and its activities in Syria and Türkiye, while testifying about Daesh operatives active in the country.
Daesh controlled one-third of Iraq and Syria at its 2014 peak. Though beaten back, it continues to wage attacks. It has conducted numerous attacks across Türkiye, including on a nightclub in Istanbul on Jan. 1, 2017, in which 39 people were killed.
Authorities have ramped up operations against Daesh and the PKK in recent weeks, after the PKK detonated a bomb near government buildings in Ankara on Oct. 1 and attacked a Turkish military base in northern Iraq, killing 12 soldiers. Türkiye regularly conducts operations at home and in northern Iraq against the PKK.
Earlier this month, Turkish intelligence and security forces captured a top Daesh terrorist in charge of the terrorist group’s finances in the Damascus region in an operation in Türkiye’s southeastern Mersin province.
A terrorist named Hudhaifa al-Mouri, code-named "Ayyoub," was responsible for coordinating funds sent to Daesh terrorist members.
Daesh remains the second biggest terrorism threat for Türkiye, which faces security risks from multiple terrorist groups. 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 attacks.
In response, Türkiye launched counterterrorism operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks.
Terrorists from Daesh and other groups such as 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 terrorist groups at their roots.
Türkiye deported 9,000 foreign terrorist fighters, mainly from Daesh, from 102 different nationalities, of which 1,168 are from the U.S. or the European Union member countries, since 2011. France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Romania, Sweden and Austria were the leading EU countries in terms of deported foreign terrorists.
Since its formal defeat in Iraq in 2017 and significant loss of territory in Syria since 2015, Daesh has been leading its operations underground besides losing its leaders to military operations. The group’s last three leaders, all Iraqis, were killed in Syria in recent years outside areas it once purported to rule.
MIT also eliminated the last Daesh leader Abu al-Hussein al-Qurayshi in Syria in April.
Ankara has a valued database containing names and information about nearly 10,000 “lone wolf” terrorists belonging to Daesh, according to a recent report from the Turkish newspaper Sabah.
