Turkey arrests ‘Jihadi John’ associate
What you need to know:
The official told journalists that Aine Lesley Davis, like “Jihadi John” a British citizen who guarded foreign prisoners in Syria, was believed to be among several Islamist suspects detained in a swoop in Istanbul and was being held by Turkish authorities.
ANKARA, Saturday
Turkish authorities have detained a suspected close associate of the notorious Islamic State group militant known as “Jihadi John” who Washington believes was likely killed in a drone strike in Syria, an official has said.
The official told journalists that Aine Lesley Davis, like “Jihadi John” a British citizen who guarded foreign prisoners in Syria, was believed to be among several Islamist suspects detained in a swoop in Istanbul and was being held by Turkish authorities.
“Turkey is 99 per cent certain that the man detained is Davis,” the official said, adding that it had been confirmed by the initial data.
The official described Davis as the closest associate of “Jihadi John”.
Davis, a London-born Muslim who turned to Islamist militancy, has been described by British media in the past as a key figure in the network of IS in Syria.
The official did not give more details over the arrest but said it had come just as Turkey prepared to host world leaders for the G20 Summit in its southern resort city of Antalya on Sunday and Monday.
COMBINED OPERATION
“We want to know if this suspect came to carry out an attack,” said the official, without specifying
Davis had previously been assumed by many media outlets to be in Syria.
“This shows that Turkey is facing a great risk to its national security,” said the official.
“We expect an active response from the international community,” the official added, saying that Ankara was in contact with Britain over the arrest.
Without giving details on timing, the official said the man suspected to be Davis and an unspecified number of fellow jihadists had crossed into Turkey from Syria but it was unclear for what purpose.
“Jihadi John”, whose real name is Mohammed Emwazi, is the masked figure who appeared in a string of graphic videos showing the beheading of Western hostages.
He was targeted in a combined British-US operation on Thursday in Raqa, the de facto IS capital in wartorn Syria.
The American military said it was reasonably certain that the notorious militant had been killed in the drone strike.
Turkey has long been under pressure from its Western allies to do more to halt the flow of jihadists across its borders but appears to have stepped up security measures in recent months.
According to official data released to AFP, in the first half of 2015 more than 700 suspected jihadists were detained and deported from Turkey whereas for all of 2014 the figure was 520.
