Report: 600 ISIS militants has snuck into Turkey
A report by Turkish security agencies shows 600 members of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) have infiltrated into Turkey. Most militants were Syrian nationals who were trained in ISIS camps and entered Turkey either illegally or under the guise of refugees fleeing the conflict.
The report says militants are deployed in 12 provinces of Turkey as cells and most of them are residing in Hatay, a province on the border with Syria. Others reside in Istanbul and Ankara as well as the central city of Konya. Militants, staying in groups of three, were part of sleeper cells posing as families, intelligence reports suggest, in the vein of grouping in Syria's Kobani where ISIS members pose as Kurdish militia and live next door to their victims, launching brutal attacks on Syrian Kurds, as they did last week.
Militants reportedly infiltrated into Turkey as part of crowds of refugees who fled the brutal clashes between ISIS and Kurdish factions earlier this month in Syria's Tal Abyad. Some 25,000 Syrians, the majority of whom are Arabs and Turkmens, have taken shelter in the Turkish town of Akçakale located opposite the Syrian side of the border after clashes escalated.
Sources say militants were in contact with ISIS command in Syria's Raqqa via the Internet and were acting under the orders of ISIS commanders.
Turkey is already under threat from ISIS, which controls large areas in Syria near the Turkish border. The militant group was behind the kidnapping of the entire staff of the Turkish Consulate in Mosul, Iraq, one of the first places in the country the militants captured last summer. Turkey's 915-kilometer border with Syria challenges Turkish authorities striving to impose tight security on the border where foreign ISIS recruits cross to join the terrorist group.
Last year, the police's intelligence department had warned that ISIS militants may carry out car bomb attacks using vehicles with fake or duplicated authentic license plates on embassies and consulates. ISIS has not carried out any bombings in the country so far, but three men linked to the group were arrested after they attacked police and troops manning a checkpoint in central Turkey last year when they were stopped at the checkpoint. A checkpoint officer, a police officer and a truck driver were killed in that attack.
The report says militants are deployed in 12 provinces of Turkey as cells and most of them are residing in Hatay, a province on the border with Syria. Others reside in Istanbul and Ankara as well as the central city of Konya. Militants, staying in groups of three, were part of sleeper cells posing as families, intelligence reports suggest, in the vein of grouping in Syria's Kobani where ISIS members pose as Kurdish militia and live next door to their victims, launching brutal attacks on Syrian Kurds, as they did last week.
Militants reportedly infiltrated into Turkey as part of crowds of refugees who fled the brutal clashes between ISIS and Kurdish factions earlier this month in Syria's Tal Abyad. Some 25,000 Syrians, the majority of whom are Arabs and Turkmens, have taken shelter in the Turkish town of Akçakale located opposite the Syrian side of the border after clashes escalated.
Sources say militants were in contact with ISIS command in Syria's Raqqa via the Internet and were acting under the orders of ISIS commanders.
Turkey is already under threat from ISIS, which controls large areas in Syria near the Turkish border. The militant group was behind the kidnapping of the entire staff of the Turkish Consulate in Mosul, Iraq, one of the first places in the country the militants captured last summer. Turkey's 915-kilometer border with Syria challenges Turkish authorities striving to impose tight security on the border where foreign ISIS recruits cross to join the terrorist group.
Last year, the police's intelligence department had warned that ISIS militants may carry out car bomb attacks using vehicles with fake or duplicated authentic license plates on embassies and consulates. ISIS has not carried out any bombings in the country so far, but three men linked to the group were arrested after they attacked police and troops manning a checkpoint in central Turkey last year when they were stopped at the checkpoint. A checkpoint officer, a police officer and a truck driver were killed in that attack.
Last Update: June 30, 2015 19:58