Police in Turkey's southeastern Şanlıurfa province have arrested 13 Daesh-linked terrorist suspects, including senior officials sought with a red notice, who illegally crossed the border through PKK-linked People's Protection Units (YPG) affiliated territory, reports said Wednesday.
According to security sources, counter-terror and intelligence units of Şanlıurfa Police launched an operation upon receiving intelligence that a group of Daesh terrorists crossed the border into Turkey from Syria, through YPG-linked smugglers.
In the operations, police detained 12 terrorist suspects and two Syrian nationals who provided assistance for crossing the border.
Police noted that suspects include seven Algerian nationals, two Syrians, two Iraqis, one Dutch, Moroccan-British and Egyptian.
One of the suspects, identified as Dr. Kefah Basheer Hussain told police that he is allegedly the senior health official of the terrorist group. He noted that he a rheumatology expert and that there are six to seven other health officials responsible for the terrorist group.
The terrorist also confessed that he cooperated with the YPG, and that the latter demanded a ceasefire from Daesh around four months ago.
He noted that the YPG told Daesh terrorists that they can leave, and take any vehicles and weapons that they own.
Meanwhile, there were red Interpol notices for the Dutch national identified as Xaviera Rose-Claire Swagemakers and Algerian national who also resided in the Netherlands, identified as Mokhtar Mekkaoi, reports said.
Thirteen of the 14 suspects have been detained by the court, while one suspect has been released.
Turkey has been targeted by many deadly Daesh attacks since 2015. Ankara has deported more than 5,000 Daesh suspects and 3,290 foreign terrorists from 95 countries in recent years and has dismantled several terrorist cells that provided logistical assistance in Syria and Iraq and for plotting attacks inside the country.
The country's efforts against Daesh made it a primary target for the terrorist group, which has carried out numerous gun and bomb attacks targeting security forces and civilians.
