ISTANBUL: A close aide of killed Daesh group leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has been caught in Istanbul, police said Sunday.
The Afghan national, only identified by the codename Basim, was detained in the Atasehir district on the city’s Asian side on Wednesday, according to an Istanbul police statement.
News reports of the joint operation with Turkey’s intelligence agency said the suspect had been involved in helping hide Al-Baghdadi in Syria’s Idlib province after the fall of the group in 2019.
Al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid on his Syrian hideout by US special forces in October 2019.
Turkish media published a photograph of a balding, bearded man in a light coat following the arrest and an earlier image, purportedly of the same person, showing a long-haired, heavily bearded man in military fatigues wielding a curved sword.
The Demiroren news agency said Basim was suspected of organizing training for Daesh while in Syria and Iraq, as well as serving on its decision-making council.
He arrived in Turkey with a false passport and identity card, the agency said.
Turkey regularly detains Daesh suspects, many allegedly planning attacks in the country.
Turkish police say top Daesh figure captured
https://arab.news/8cbb3
Turkish police say top Daesh figure captured
Palestinian paramedic from Gaza dies in Israeli prison
- Hatem Rayan had been held at the notorious Negev detention center since his arrest on Dec. 27, 2024
- He was detained at Kamal Adwan Hospital along with his injured son, Muath, who remains in custody
LONDON: Hatem Rayan, a Palestinian paramedic from Gaza, has died at the notorious Israeli Negev detention center, the Palestinian Authority’s General Authority of Civil Affairs said on Thursday.
He had been held there since his arrest on Dec. 27, 2024, according to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, and the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
He was arrested at Kamal Adwan Hospital along with his injured son, Muath, who remains in custody, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.
Rayan is one of more than 100 prisoners and detainees who have died in Israeli prisons since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023. Only 88 of them have been officially identified, 52 of whom were from Gaza. The total number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody since 1967 now stands at 325, the prisoners’ rights groups added.
Rayan was detained when Israeli forces stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital, the largest medical facility in northern Gaza. They carried out a forced evacuation of patients and staff, and arrested its director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. He remains detained without charge.
