Turkish police detained two suspected Daesh terrorists, including a militant who helped other terrorists buy mobile phone lines.
The suspects were captured at the intercity bus terminal in Balıkesir’s Ayvalık district on Monday, before boarding the bus to head to Hatay located on the Syrian border.
Identified by the initials, I.T. and K.D., the suspects were allegedly planning to illegally cross the border into Syria.
The 22-year-old I.T. had previously bought mobile phone numbers and handed them out to Daesh terrorists who arrived in Turkey from Iraq and Afghanistan, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.
I.T. had also facilitated the illegal entry of a female terrorist code-named "Fetrin” into Turkey.
The two terrorist suspects will stand trial at the Balıkesir Second Heavy Penal Court.
In 2013, Turkey became one of the first countries to declare Daesh a terrorist group.
The country has since been attacked by the terrorist group multiple times, with over 300 people killed and hundreds more injured in at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks and four armed assaults.
In response, Turkey launched counterterrorism operations at home and abroad to prevent further attacks.
In May 2021, Ankara arrested a Daesh terrorist identified as the right-hand man of former terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Al-Baghdadi was killed in a United States military operation in Syria in 2019. Reports said that Turkish intelligence played a key role in the death of al-Baghdadi by detaining and extraditing one of his aides to Iraq, who then provided U.S. authorities with critical information to help locate the vicious man.
