Turkey: Captured ISIS Figure Planned Russia, Germany Attacks
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Turkey: Captured ISIS Figure Planned Russia, Germany Attacks
Friday, 22 November, 2019 - 15:00
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Turkish army howitzers are positioned on the Turkish-Syrian border, near the southeastern town of Akcakale in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, October 7, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer
Istanbul- Asharq Al-Awsat
Turkey's interior minister has identified a key ISIS suspect captured by the country's forces in Syria as the alleged mastermind behind attacks in Russia and Germany, according to a newspaper report on Friday.
Turkey had announced last week that it detained an "important" ISIS figure but did not name him. In an interview published in Hurriyet newspaper, Suleyman Soylu identified the man as Yusuf Huba, describing him as a high-ranking ISIS member. Soylu said the man allegedly planned and ordered a bomb attack in Russia in 2018 as well as an attack at a supermarket in Germany.
Turkey has been highlighting what it says is its fight against ISIS, in the face of accusations that the Turkish military offensive last month to drive Syrian Kurdish fighters from northeast Syria would allow for a resurgence of the militant group.
The interior minister said the suspect is also known as Abu Jihad al-Din al-Nasir Ubeyde and is being held and questioned in Syria, in an area controlled by Turkey.
"We have captured a very senior ISIS member who is known as a bomber, bomb-maker, and mastermind of suicide bomb attacks," he told Hurriyet.
It was not clear which attack in Russia in 2018 the minister was referring to. In a 2017 attack in the northern German port city of Hamburg, a 26-year-old Palestinian man killed one person and wounded six others in a stabbing spree at a supermarket.
Since its military incursion into Syria, Turkey has been deporting foreign ISIS members who are held in Turkish prisons or in Syria to their home countries. ISIS suspects from the United States, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands have been repatriated in the past two weeks. Turkey also plans to soon deport an Irish woman and her child as well as 11 French nationals.
Asharq Al-Awsat
Greece said on Friday it was deploying more border guards to “shut the door” to migrants not entitled to stay, the latest sign of a hardening stance against asylum seekers since a new surge in the number of arrivals.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament he had approved the hiring of 400 guards at Greece’s land border with Turkey and another 800 guards for its islands. Greece will also upgrade its sea patrolling operations, he said, Reuters reported.
On Wednesday, the conservative government elected in July announced plans to shut overcrowded refugee camps on islands and replace them with more restrictive holding centers.
“Welcome in Greece are only those we choose. Those who are not welcomed will be returned,” Mitsotakis said.
“We will permanently shut the door to illegal human traffickers, to those who want to enter although they are not entitled to asylum.”
Greece was the main gateway into the European Union for more than a million people fleeing conflict in 2015-16.
Migrant and refugee arrivals from neighboring Turkey have risen again, and more than 37,000 people are crammed into facilities on islands which operate far beyond their capacity.
The government wants to move up to 20,000 people to the mainland by the end of the year, according to Reuters.
It has also designed a new framework to speed up the processing of asylum requests, which human rights groups have criticized as a “rushed” attempt that would impede access to a fair asylum process for refugees.
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