15 ISIL suspects detained in Turkey’s İzmir

İZMİR – Doğan News Agency

AA photo

Some 15 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suspects were detained early on April 1 in the Aegean province of İzmir, including suspected trainers of suicide bombers. 

The İzmir counter-terrorism police unit conducted the operation on specific addresses targeted in advance. 
Police also seized four shotguns and documents and equipment belonging to the jihadist group during searches at the addresses.

The detained suspects are thought to have been trainees of Savaş Yıldız, who carried out a bomb attack on the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) district offices in the southern provinces of Adana and Mersin in 2015. Yıldız is still being sought by police.

It has been reported that the detained suspects trained militants to work in engagement areas and personally participated in exercises there.

Counter-terrorism and intelligence police units across Turkey have been on alert following a tip-off that three ISIL militants, including Yıldız (codenamed Ebu Cihat), were recently ordered to conduct attacks across Turkey in crowded places, especially in Istanbul.

Police shared pictures of ISIL militants - Hacı Ali Dumaz, codenamed Mervan; Savaş Yıldız, and Yunus Durmaz, who uses the codenames Abdüllatif Efe, Sarı Yunus and Muhammed Ali - on March 21.

Turkey is on alert following a series of recent suicide bomb attacks in the capital Ankara and Istanbul. The latest terror attack hit central Istanbul’s İstiklal Avenue on March 19, killing five and wounding 39 people.

Meanwhile, intelligence units have released a warning report stating that five suspected ISIL militants might commit suicide attacks in Turkey, according to daily Habertürk.

The report included the names and photos of the suspected militants and the places where they were last seen.

According to the report, Abu Ayman al-Maghribi, a 32-year-old militant whose code name is Darwan al-Haymar and who holds a U.S. passport, left the U.S. in order to go to Morocco via Turkey with his wife, Khadiji Nejari, and two children on Jan. 17, 2014, but did not arrive in the North African country. 

The police are searching for the militant who is thought to be in Turkey with his wife and two children.
Another suspected militant, İsa Tupolov, who holds a Russian passport, is in the Syrian city of Rai and is planning to commit suicide attacks in Turkey and Azerbaijan.  

The police are on alert across Turkey on the possibility that Rashed Alabdalah, a 35-year-old and a friend of the suicide bomber who blew himself up in Istanbul’s touristic Sultanahmet Square, Nabil Fadli, will come to Turkey.

The intelligence units learned that Furkan Ürkmez, another name on an intelligence list, went to Syria via the southeastern province of Gaziantep on March 6. The police are now worried that Ürkmez, the brother of Muhammed Ürkmez, who was allegedly killed in clashes in July 2015, will be used as a suicide bomber by ISIL. 

The police is on high alert after it was revealed that Hasan Hüseyin Uğur, the final name on the list, sent a message saying, “It is our turn to become a martyr.”