Turkey Successfully Obtains Data on 9,952 Lone Wolf Global Terrorists Owned by ISIS: Contains Names, Skills to Addresses

Illustration. (Piaxabay/TayebMEZAHDIA)

JAKARTA - Turkey managed to get hold of a valuable database belonging to ISIS after conducting operations for several months, containing the names and information of 9,952 "lone wolf" terrorists in the world.

Daily Sabah, as quoted on August 10, obtained access to the details of the operation that started in a cafe in Istanbul and ended with the arrest of a suspect who has a database at Istanbul Airport.

The existence of a database containing biographical information on lone wolf terrorists, ranging from skills to information on where they live and their identities, is known to exist by most intelligence agencies, from the CIA, MI6 to the Mossad.

The intelligence agencies assigned 40 agents in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan, to trace databases known to be held by ISIS members in those countries.

The database was first owned by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who was killed on October 27, 2019. US agents explored the area where al-Baghdadi was killed in Syria in an operation. However, that data disappeared long ago and was later found to be with al-Baghdadi's successor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.

ISIS illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Aharan_kotogo)

Meanwhile, the Istanbul police's intelligence and counterterrorism unit, which is carrying out operations against ISIS, discovers suspicious conversations among the intelligence targets they intercepted. They find an ISIS "cargo exchange," though they don't know what it contains. Supervision has also been increased.

According to a report by Abdurrahman Soğuksu, the counterterrorism director of the Istanbul police, the database became a topic of conversation between Mehmet Çelik, Zeyneddin Çalışkan, Hikmet Aliyev, Seymur Rzayev and Ilyas Yıldırım who gathered at a cafe. The men, who allegedly have links to Iranian intelligence, spoke about "digital cargo" being sold by ISIS members who stole it from the leader of the terrorist group and discussed how to get it for Iranian intelligence.

Turkish watchdog revealed that ISIS members who owned the database negotiated the sale of the database to five individuals, who were not aware of their links to Iranian intelligence, for 8.5 million euros. The two sides agreed to the delivery of the database in Istanbul and after months of negotiations, Iran's Ministry of Intelligence (VAJA) informed the men that they were ready to pay the price, having seen a "preview" of the database.

ISIS illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/VOA)

An ISIS courier arrives in Istanbul for the sale while Istanbul police launch the operation. The courier was intercepted at the Istanbul Airport arrivals terminal and the database was found in his hands.

Police also detained five men who worked for Iranian intelligence. Seymur Rzayev is an Azerbaijani citizen of Iranian origin and involved in a secret project for the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Iran. Meanwhile Aliyev, an Iranian national, operates a cargo company. As for Çalışkan and Çelik, also businessmen, they are working to supply parts for Iran's strategic defense projects.

It is known that the database has been an international hunt for a long time because it contains all the information about 'lone wolf' terrorists from the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and Spain which are ISIS sleeper cells around the world.

That said, Al-Qurashi, knowing that foreign intelligence services were looking for him, decided to send him to another country. But the courier he assigned for delivery finds out about the contents of the database and decides to sell it.

He disappeared but was found by ISIS members. He admitted to losing the database and did not confess, even though the terrorist group's interrogators cut off both of his legs. The leadership of the terrorist group, unable to believe that the database had just disappeared, went after a potential suspect who they think stole the database.

In the aftermath, they executed an ISIS member in Uzbekistan and two others in Syria on suspicion of committing theft. But, they failed to find a valuable lone wolf terrorist list.

A single ISIS attack is a threat that is difficult to detect and occurs in various countries. One of the lone wolf attacks by ISIS killed 50 people in an attack on a Florida nightclub on June 12, 2016.

The lone wolf also killed 84 people in Nice, France when a truck plowed into a crowd, to an attack on a nightclub in Istanbul that killed 39 people.