Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) has captured an alleged senior operative of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in an undisclosed conflict zone and brought him to Turkey, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Monday, citing security sources.
Talip Güler, who used the alias Abdüsselam Türki, allegedly operated in ISIL’s Turkey branch, known within the group as the “Faruk Office,” according to Anadolu.
The report did not disclose where or when Güler was captured, how he was transferred to Turkey or whether another country was involved in the operation.
Anadolu said Güler had been the subject of an INTERPOL Yellow Notice. However, Yellow Notices are ordinarily issued to locate missing people, while Red Notices are used to seek the location and provisional arrest of people wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence.
It was not immediately clear why a Yellow Notice had reportedly been issued for Güler.
MİT identified Güler as the brother of Kasım Güler, whom Turkish officials described as ISIL’s former “Turkey province leader” and the financial chief of the Faruk Office before his capture in Syria and transfer to Turkey in 2021.
Kasım Güler was sentenced by an Ankara court in March 2023 to 30 years in prison on charges that included membership in a terrorist organization and possession of hazardous materials without authorization.
According to Anadolu, Talip Güler crossed illegally into Syria in January 2014 and carried out activities there in coordination with his brother and other senior ISIL figures.
Citing security sources the agency said Güler admitted after being brought to Turkey that he had worked for ISIL and provided information about his radicalization, journey to Syria and activities in the group.
The operation is the latest in a series of intelligence and police actions targeting ISIL networks inside and outside Turkey.
Turkish police detained 361 people in operations across 39 provinces in early June on suspicion of membership in ISIL or financing the group. That operation followed the detention of 70 suspects across 21 provinces earlier in the month — 324 people in 47 provinces in May and 525 suspects in 56 provinces in April — according to figures announced by the Interior Ministry.
In March police detained another 184 suspected ISIL members in operations across 35 provinces.
Turkey, which designated ISIL as a terrorist organization in 2013 and shares a long border with Syria, has since suffered a series of deadly attacks attributed to or claimed by the group.
ISIL was blamed for the July 2015 suicide bombing in the southeastern town of Suruç that killed 33 people and twin bombings targeting a peace rally outside Ankara’s main train station in October 2015 that killed 103.
ISIL was also linked to a January 2016 suicide bombing in İstanbul’s historic Sultanahmet district that killed 12 German tourists and a June 2016 attack on İstanbul’s Atatürk Airport that left 45 people dead.
The group claimed responsibility for an attack on İstanbul’s Reina nightclub during New Year’s celebrations on January 1, 2017, in which 39 people were killed.
More recently, two gunmen affiliated with ISIL’s Khorasan Province attacked the Santa Maria Italian Catholic Church in İstanbul during Sunday Mass in January 2024, killing one person.
Opposition politicians and victims’ families have repeatedly accused the Turkish government of failing to act on intelligence about ISIL cells before some of the attacks and of not fully investigating the networks behind them.
The government denies accusations that it tolerated the group and points to repeated police and intelligence operations as evidence of its campaign against ISIL.