As Turkish police continue their incessant operations against Daesh’s active terror cells, security forces remain on high alert against any possible attacks.
Obtained confessions during interrogations that decrypt active terror cells assist security forces in their pinpoint operations as they work to foil Daesh’s terror plots. Nationwide operations were launched after police headquarters in Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir initiated raids targeting sleeping terror cells.
The new counterterrorism procedures put in place by Turkish police have enabled them to uncover terror cells at a faster rate. Security sources confirm that counterterrorism personnel work on-alert and around the clock as they continue to fight against terror elements. The source also noted that the most recent Daesh arrestees had no criminal record, which is a new tactic by the terror group that aims to complicate the police’s work.
Linking terror cell findings with intelligence reports allow security forces to unravel terrorists’ plans. One of these findings was a recent directive by Daesh to recruit university graduates to carry out terrorist attacks. The recruits, who have no criminal records, would present their student cards to security personnel, which in turn enables them to claim they came to Turkey looking for jobs. The most recent example of this practice is the Reina murderer Abdulkadir Masharipov, a university graduate, who killed 39 people in cold blood in the club on New Year’s Eve in Istanbul.
The extracted confessions help security forces in exposing new terror cells and facilitate the process of identifying information that can’t be obtained through search operations.
The arrest of the Reina terrorist alone has uncovered at least 20 active terror cells and helped foil two large terror attacks.
Following the interrogation of a Daesh terrorist that was captured alive, after leaving a bomb-laden vehicle and motorcycle in the car park of a shopping mall in Istanbul, two more significant terror cells were exposed and an operation was carried out.
The “Risk Analysis” chambers set up in both Atatürk and Sabiha Airports, in addition to the one in place at the Istanbul Metropolitan Bus Station, had played a significant role in the success of these operations.
