Turkish police nab ISIS cells in preparation for New Year attacks

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said via his “X” account that 29 ISIS members, who were preparing terrorist attacks on churches and synagogues in İstanbul, were captured in simultaneous operations in 9 provinces with the joint work of the Turkish Intelligence Organization (MİT) and General Police Directorate (Emniyet). A few days earlier, on December 21, Yerlikaya announced that 304 ISIS suspects were captured in simultaneous operations in 32 provinces; 86 of them in İstanbul, 39 in Ankara and 20 in Izmir, three largest cities of Türkiye.

According to security sources who requested anonymity, the latest operation announced by Yerlikaya included three Iraqi citizens who were members of the “Salman Al-Farisi Battalion (SFT)”, the ISIS network active in Türkiye.

Churches, synagogues, and an embassy

According to the information provided, the operation started when MİT detected that the intelligence officer of ISIS/SFT Micbel al-Shuveyhi, code-named Abu Yakin al-Iraqi, and Mohammed Hilaf Ibrahim Ibrahim, code-named Abu Leys, were preparing to carry out attacks against synagogues and churches in Turkey. While Iyheb Elani, code-named Abdullah al-Jumaili, was preparing to carry out a terror attack against the Iraqi Embassy in Ankara. The 29 alleged ISIS members were captured because of suspected contacts with them.

In another joint operation of MİT and Emniyet, Huzeyfe El Muri, code-named Eyyüp, who was alleged to be ISIS’s Damascus chief and involved in money transfers, was captured in Mersin on December 19.

Security sources confirm the connection between the ISIS operations and ISIS’s increased activities in Turkey towards the New Year. The church and synagogue details in the statements also confirm this.

On the night between 2016 and 2017, Uzbek-born ISIS militant Abdulkadir Masharipov codenamed Abu Muhammad Khorasani, killed 39 people and wounded 70 others when he stormed the New Year’s Eve party at Reina nightclub in İstanbul. Masharipov was later captured and sentenced to 40 life sentences and 1386 years in prison due to his other crimes.

Turkey, and the fight against ISIS

ISIS organized the terrorist attack that killed the highest number of people at one time in Turkey. On October 10, 2015, two ISIS militants killed 109 people and wounded more than 500 in a suicide attack on a mass demonstration in front of the Ankara Train Station. The rally in Ankara was also organized to protest the suicide bombing by ISIS in Suruç on the Syrian border on July 20, 2015, which killed 34 people and wounded more than 100.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan announced that ISIS leader Abu Hussein al-Quraishi was “neutralized” in a MİT operation in Jinderes, near the Syrian city of Afrin.

Ankara on the other hand is at odds with its NATO ally USA because of picking the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) as the partner against ISIS; SDF was practically organized by PYD/YPG, the Syria branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated a terrorist organization also by the USA.

In a December 30 message Turkish Interior Minister Yerlikaya said tens and thousands of police, gendarmerie, and coast guard troops will be on alert to have a peaceful New Year’s night.