Turkish court arrests two ISIL ‘New Year suicide bombing’ suspects

ANKARA

CİHAN photo

An Ankara court on Jan. 1 ruled arrests of two Turkish men suspected of belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and planning a double suicide bombing in the capital on New Year’s Eve.

Musa Canöz, 28, and Adnan Yıldırım, 40, who were detained in a raid on Dec. 30, 2015, were placed under arrest on charges of “possessing explosive materials” and “membership of a terrorist organization”.

They were sent to the Sincan prison in Ankara, Anadolu Agency reported.

The two suicide bombers, identified as Musa Canöz, 28, and Adnan Yıldırım, 40, were allegedly scouting the capital’s central Kızılay square and nearby bars, the location of many New Year’s Eve celebrations, for two separate attacks.

The bombers took order from “Ebu Enes,” who gave information over the Internet one day before the planned attack to “conclude preparations, finalize explorations, wait tomorrow until the action and conduct attacks simultaneously in two separate positions.”

Police also detained Z.A. who had provided transport and had been in contact with Canöz and Yıldırım. 

The two left Ankara in 2013 to join ISIL and re-entered Turkey in September 2015 through Kilis with the help of smugglers before traveling to Ankara by bus and renting an apartment with cash.

Canöz and Yıldırım had received training on explosives in Syria and prepared the bomb set-ups which were also seized by police during a raid on their location. They purchased chemicals for explosives in the Çubuk district of Ankara and other materials in the Ulus district. 

The decision for the attack was taken in Raqqa, ISIL’s capital, with bombers acting independently of ISIL cells already in Turkey.