- Tweeter
republish
Turkey would hold an " important member " of the Islamic State group, billed as a sponsor of attacks in Germany and Russia. This is said Friday, November 22, the Turkish Minister of the Interior, as the country tries to give pledges on its anti-jihadist struggle to its Western allies.
With our correspondent in Ankara , Anne Andlauer
Accused of weakening the fight against the Islamic State group with its recent offensive in north-east Syria, Turkey tries to correct this image by announcing almost weekly the capture of a major member of the jihadist organization.
This time, it would be a certain Yusuf Heba, presented as the sponsor of twenty attacks around the world, that Ankara claims to have stopped in Azaz, northern region of Syria controlled by the Turkish army. According to Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, he allegedly " planned and ordered " a " bomb attack " in Russia in 2018 and an attack on a " shopping center " in Hamburg, Germany.
The minister says no more about these attacks, but he portrays the individual as a trainer of car bomb attacks, suicide bombings and " poisoning murders ". The man would still be interrogated in Syria by the Turkish authorities, but the minister does not specify the date of his arrest.
In recent weeks, Ankara has notably announced the capture of a wife and other members of the family of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the late leader of the Islamic State group . Turkey, however, had been kept out of the US operation that led to her death in Syria.