Turkish police have arrested Australia's 'most wanted' Daesh terrorist recruiter Australian citizen Neil Prakash, who is currently being interrogated by Turkish authorities, reports said on Saturday.
The terrorist was reportedly arrested by Turkish police about a month ago after entering the country with a fake passport.
A man believed to be Neil Prakash, who was linked to several Australia-based attack plans, has been detained in Turkey and is being interrogated by Turkish authorities, a government spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The Australian government described Neil Prakash, also known as Abu Khaled al-Cambodi, as "the most dangerous Australian."
Prakash will be subject to a formal extradition request from Australia, the Australian government said.
"The arrest of the person we believe is Prakash is the result of close collaboration between Australian and Turkish authorities," the spokesperson said.
Melbourne-born Prakash appeared in Daesh videos and magazines and actively recruited Australian men, women and children and encouraged acts of terrorism, the Australian government said in May.
Australia said in May that Prakash was killed in an airstrike in Mosul, Iraq, on April 29, based on U.S. intelligence.
But the New York Times reported on Friday that he had been wounded in the attack and survived. The Australian government subsequently confirmed he was alive.
Australia last year announced financial sanctions against Prakash, including threatening anyone giving financial assistance with punishment of up to 10 years in jail.
Prakash is the suspected inspiration for a 15-year-old Australian boy who was shot dead by police soon after he fatally shot a civilian police employee outside the state police headquarters in Sydney in October last year.
He is also suspected of motivating an 18-year-old Australian who was shot dead after he stabbed two policemen outside a Melbourne police station in September 2014.
He faces a potential life prison sentence if he is convicted in Australia of terrorism offenses.
Turkey has prevented the entry of over 52,075 people from entering the country and has deported 3,700 foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) since the Syrian civil war started in 2011.
Over 2,000 suspects with Daesh links have been arrested by Turkey.
Since 2014, estimates of total numbers of FTFs from more than 100 countries for Daesh range from 15,000 to 40,000 by different sources.
Turkish Police at airports have prevented the entry of more than 3,200 people with FTF-related suspicions since spring 2014.
Turkish authorities have extensively cooperated with other countries on the issue of foreign fighters. Ibrahim El Bakraoui (29), one of the two brothers identified by Belgium for being responsible for the attacks that killed at least 31 people in Brussels in March, entered Turkey on June 11, 2015, and was detained by Turkish authorities on June 14. He subsequently got deported on July 14, 2015.
A Turkish official said at the time: "We notified Belgium's and the Netherlands's authorities about his travel route and put an exclusion order on him."
In addition, Iman Mahiev, a French woman of Syrian origin, was detained by Turkish authorities close to the Syrian border and deported to France from Turkey over suspected ties to Daesh in January. She was detained by the Turkish authorities close to the Syrian border over suspected ties to Daesh terrorists.
