Turkish security forces foiled an ISIS plot to attack Bursa police station and arrested the terrorist who had planned the attack.
Security sources said the police teams in Bursa were also examining surveillance footage in the region after five furniture workshops were burned by arson in July.
The footage showed suspect recording arson footage by his cellphone and decided to further conduct investigations. The suspect was seen leaving the scene on a red bicycle, which counter-terrorism teams found in front of a house, the source added.
Police units then raided the house of the suspect, identified as M.A, and found ISIS flags, three explosive devices, a suicide vest, and materials used in bomb-making.
The suspect was arrested and confessed to being a member of ISIS terrorist organization. He admitted that he contacted the group members through the Internet as he did not have a SIM card in his phone.
He also confessed to burning down the factories upon instructions from ISIS leaders, and that he was active in Syria in 2017-2018 as the terror group’s member where he received bomb training.
The suspect reported that he illegally came to Turkey two years ago and that he was planning to bomb the police station in Bursa.
The terrorist organization had previously claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks in Turkey over the past years, which resulted in the deaths of over 300 people and the injury of hundreds.
The most recent ISIS attack was on New Year's Eve 2017 in the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, which killed 39 people and injured 69 others.
The Turkish security services are carrying out continuous campaigns against the organization’s cells that have resulted in the arrest of over 5,000 of its members.
During the past five years, more than 3,000 ISIS terrorists were deported outside the country, while the authorities began in November 2019 to deport foreign ISIS fighters and their families to their countries of origin after the death of leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a US airstrike in Idlib.
More than 200 of ISIS elements have been deported, and about 900 others are waiting in deportation centers.
