Turkish forces have arrested “one of the main leaders” of the Islamic State (IS) ‘jihadist’ group, which had links to Syria and Istanbul, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Thursday.
The Turkish head of state said that this Islamic leader was known by the pseudonym Abu Zeyd, but his real name is Bashar Khattab Ghazal al-Sumaidai.
Erdogan, who announced the arrest in remarks to journalists while returning to Turkey after a trip to three Balkan countries, explained that a UN report released in July identified Al-Sumaidai as “one of the top leaders of the terrorist organization “.
Turkish media have reported that there is some evidence that ISIS’s top cadre may be a man known as Abu Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, an Iraqi believed to be ISIS’s new supreme leader.
“This terrorist’s links in Syria and Istanbul were investigated for a long time and the intelligence services obtained information that he would enter Turkey illegally,” Erdogan said.
“Arrested during an MIT Security Service operation [serviço secreto turco] and the Istanbul police”, added the Turkish president, without specifying the date of the arrest.
IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, but the group’s sleeper cells continue to carry out attacks in both countries.
Source: TSF
