Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Haim Zach/GPO
Israeli President Isaac Herzog gives an address at the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul on March 10, 2022
(JNS) — Police arrested a suspected Islamic State member in Istanbul on Thursday who was planning to attack Jewish targets in Turkey, the Daily Sabah reported.
Police said a high-ranking ISIS member instructed the suspect to plan large-scale terrorist attacks on synagogues and Jewish schools in Turkey and European countries, although no timeline was specified.
The suspect, identified as Uzbek national Abdulmalik A., was apprehended in a raid in the city’s Fatih district after authorities intercepted coded messages exchanged between him and suspected ISIS terrorists.
The suspect was a member of ISIS’s so-called Asia branch and entered Turkey legally from a European country, according to the report.
Istanbul’s counterterrorism police placed him under surveillance after receiving a tip he was planning a “sensational” attack.
Authorities are currently pursuing his handlers and other terrorists he was in contact with in Turkey.
On Nov. 15, 2003, Al-Qaeda terrorists detonated bombs at two Istanbul synagogues, Neve Shalom and Beth Yaakov, killing 28 people and wounding more than 300 others.
In December 2023, Turkish security forces detained 32 suspects over alleged links to ISIS, who were planning attacks on synagogues and churches, as well as the Iraqi embassy.
