Notes of dead Daesh terrorist show weddings targeted


The handwritten notes of a Daesh terrorist which were entered as evidence in an indictment for the Oct. 10 suicide bombings in Ankara last year revealed that the terrorist organization was planning to carry out attacks on weddings organized by Kurdish families in Turkey's southeastern provinces.The indictment came shortly before a suicide bombing in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on Saturday, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stating that Daesh is "the likely suspect" of the attack.Written by one of the so-called "emirs" of Daesh, Yunus Durmaz, who committed suicide during an operation in the southeastern province of Gaziantep last May as counterterrorism units moved in to raid his home, the note revealed that PKK presence and propaganda in Kurdish weddings were used as a pretext for the planned attacks. The investigation for the indictment revealed that Durmaz wrote the note to a senior Daesh terrorist in Turkey just four days before the terrorist attack on Oct. 10 last year which left 109 people dead and over 500 wounded in Ankara. Since Turkey recognized Daesh as a terrorist organization on Oct. 10, 2013 in an official declaration, officials have continued counterterrorism measures against Daesh, hitting targets in Syria with mortars and conducting extensive investigations across the country.At the end of May this year, 11 suspected Daesh terrorists, including senior leaders of the terrorist organization, were captured in Gaziantep.Yunus Durmaz was on the Red List of the Interior Ministry's Wanted Terrorists website, with a TL 4 million ($1.3 million) reward being offered for information leading to his capture. Although Durmaz killed himself during the raid, his wife, their two children and his brother Hacı Ali Durmaz were captured. Hacı Ali Durmaz, also a member of Daesh, had also been on the Interior Ministry's most wanted list, with a TL 1.5 million reward being offered for information leading to his capture.