Five days before ISIS attack at Istanbul church, Turkish journalist said ISIS planned to hit churches

And there will likely be more such attacks.

“ISIS’ plans for ‘suicide bomb’ attacks on consulates, churches and synagogues revealed,” translated from “IŞİD’in konsolosluklar, kilise ve sinagoglara ‘canlı bomba’ saldırısı planları ortaya çıktı,” by Hale Gönültaş, Artigercek, January 23, 2024 (thanks to Uzay Bulut):

It was revealed that ISIS was planning to carry out a suicide bomb attack on the Swedish and Dutch consulates after the Quran burning incident in front of the Grand Mosque in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, in March 2023. While preparations were being made to attack some churches and synagogues in Istanbul, the organization’s Istanbul manager decided to become a confessor, causing traffic that resembled the scenario of a spy movie.

In the indictment prepared by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the structuring of ISIS (ISIS-H Khorasan), O.I. In addition to the Turkish citizen named named, there were a total of 18 defendants from Dagestan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan.

The indictment includes the structures of ISIS members in Turkey to send members to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, the places/districts and cities they chose to shelter in, communication techniques, attacks on Swedish and Dutch consulates as well as churches and synagogues in Taksim and its surroundings, fake IDs, passports. Details regarding the arrangement, financing and illegal passage of militants to Iran were included.

Another striking element in the indictment was that the method known as “dead drop” in English intelligence terminology was also used by ISIS militants to procure/deliver weapons. According to the indictment, in addition to the attacks they planned in Turkey, ISIS militants used the method of burying explosives such as guns and grenades in places with known coordinates and burying them underground (dead drop).

According to the indictment, ISIS’ Khorasan Manager in Istanbul is 45-year-old A.C., a citizen of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Defendant A.C. He was detained and arrested during a police operation last year. The statement given by the ISIS Khorasan officer at the Counter-Terrorism Branch (TEM) clearly revealed the details of ISIS’s activities in Turkey within the scope of its Afghanistan structure, or more clearly, the use of Turkey as a base.

According to A.C.’s TEM statement, he joined ISIS in 2014 while doing business in Kyrgyzstan. Among their duties is to welcome militants coming from Central Asia and Russia (albeit in small numbers) who will go to Syria and Afghanistan, from airports and train stations, to accommodate them in the country for a while, and to distribute them to ISIS ranks in line with the instructions given.

CAME TO TURKEY ILLEGALLY FROM RUSSIA

According to the statement given by the defendant A.C. in TEM, he was instructed by the organization to go to Turkey at the end of 2015. It also comes to Turkey illegally from Russia via Iran. He rents a house in Sefaköy. He stays at home with ISIS members who will go to conflict zones in Syria. On the same days, he was detained during a police raid and deported to Egypt. He goes from Egypt to Ukraine.

He took part in the ISIS organization in Ukraine for three months. At the end of three months, ISIS receives instructions from the Syrian administration to leave Ukraine and go to Turkey. Since he has been deported from Turkey before, he will enter with a fake passport. Uighurs in the ISIS organization in Ukraine are experts in making fake passports. A fake passport in the name of “Farkhod Safarov” was issued to the defendant A.C. in Ukraine. He enters the country from Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport with a fake passport. He settles in another house in Sefaköy, Istanbul, where the organization had previously given his address, and waits for further instructions.

In his statement, the ISIS leader says that there are two separate phone lines with Kyrgyz numbers. However, in accordance with the instructions from the organization, phones do not contain “sim cards” (for security reasons). He receives instructions from Rustam Muhojirca, the explosives and action manager of the ISIS Khorasan Group, via the Telegram application.

The duty of ISIS leader A.C. in Istanbul is to manage the process of sending personnel to ISIS’ Khorasan structure and to provide weapons. With the guidance of the organization, it welcomes people who will go to ISIS’ Afghanistan conflict zone when they come to Turkey, places them in houses or hotels, acts as an intermediary in preparing fake IDs, and when the time comes, it acts as an intermediary in their passage to Iran via Van and Ağrı. When instructions come from Afghanistan, he supplies weapons and bombs to militants in suicide bomb attacks in Turkey….