Turkish Intelligence seizes IS database, names of 10,000 'lone wolf terrorists' revealed

Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT *Milli Istihbarat Teskilati) and Turkish police on Tuesday, August 8 seized a secret database of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization (Arabic acronym Daesh) that revealed names of almost 10,000 so-called lone wolf terrorists. The database has been a central piece of hunting for the global Intelligence agencies for decades and contains secret information about 'lone wolf terrorists' of IS sleeper cells from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and Spain.

The hunt began with a phone call in the Tajik language that was wiretapped by the Turkish intelligence. 

The explosive dossier contains the names, and biographies of 9,952 terrorists scattered worldwide, and secret details about their special training, organizational skills and weapons used during operations worldwide. It also includes the details of the IS terrorists' nationality, family members, addresses and contacts, according to the Turkey-based newspapers, which cited the security officials. 

Turkey's intelligence agency officials possess a valued database that contains information about 9,952 "lone wolf" terrorists, sources said, adding that access to the details was gained after a successful covert operation that began at a cafe in Istanbul. It ended with the capture of a suspect by the Turkish police who was in possession of the IS database at Istanbul Airport. The dossier with ID,  biographical and contact information of the Daesh terrorists is known to be in existence by global intelligence agencies such as the United States-based Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), UK's Secret Intelligence Service MI6 and Israel's Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations Mossad.

A Syrian Democratic Forces soldier keeps a watch by a prison attacked by IS terrorists in Hassakeh, Syria. Credit: Associated Press

Database first in possession of fugitive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi; passed on to successor Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi

In 2019, the database of Daesh was in possession of the terrorist organization's fugitive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was neutralised in a United States military operation code-named Operation Kayla Mueller in north-west Syria under the administration of former US President Donald Trump. Al-Bagdadi, who came to prominence in 2014, detonated his suicide vest after fleeing into a tunnel, chased by US military dogs, Trump later declared. He died "whimpering and crying and screaming" as he detonated the bomb causing the tunnel to collapse, according to the former US President.

Shortly before his death, the Jihadist leader al-Bagdadi had declared the creation of a "caliphate" in areas of Iraq and Syria to carry out multiple atrocities and deaths of civilians. The IS terrorists have since remained active in the region, and elsewhere. Aware that the international Intelligence agencies were after getting their hands on the secretive dossier, al-Bagdadi had decided to send it to another country, but the courier he assigned sold the database and disappeared.

IS interrogators later captured him and cut off his two feet during their pursuit of potential suspects. They also executed a Daesh member in Uzbekistan, and two others in Syria in search of the dossier. 

Lone wolf terrorists of Daesh are known to be most sinister in carrying out executions. They killed at least 50 people on June 12, 2016, at a Florida nightclub, and 84 people in France’s Nice after a truck ploughed through a crowd. In Turkey, a lone wolf of Kyrgyz origin identified as Abdulkadir Masharipov, slaughtered 39 people in the famous Istanbul club on the New Year of Jan. 1, 2017. In 2013, the Daesh terrorists killed 300 people and injured hundreds of others in at least 10 suicide bombings. 

Turkey has since conducted several counterterrorism operations in Syria and neighbouring Iraq to nab Daesh and other terrorist group members such as the PKK and its Syrian wing, the YPG. Last week, Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) conducted an operation in Iraq's Sinjar region, where it neutralised the PKK terrorist Yimaz Bayram, codenamed Agit Gever. 

The Lone Wolf terrorists of Daesh lost strongholds in Iraq and Syria during the counterterrorism operations in 2017, and now operate underground. 

A fighter from the Christian Syriac militia that battles the Islamic State group under the banner of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, burns an IS flag on the front line on the western side of Raqqa, northeast Syria. Credit: Associated Press

Shortly after al-Bagdadi's death, the secret dossier was found by his successor Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi who was killed mid-October in 2022 by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the southern province of Daraa, according to US Central Command (CENTCOM). The successor IS leader was trying to gain prominence by activating the IS terrorist 'sleeper cells' and its affiliate groups in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. 

Intelligence and counterterrorism units of Istanbul police flagged a suspicious conversation among intelligence targets, whom they had been wiretapping for months. Details of the imminent “exchange” of a “cargo” belonging to Daesh came up between a foreign Daesh terrorist and his collaborators which led to more surveillance operations.

Dossier seized after wiretapping five men linked with Iranian Intelligence

According to a statement by Abdurrahman Soğuksu, counterterrorism director of Istanbul police, the database remained the topic of discussion between five men identified as Mehmet Çelik, Zeyneddin Çalışkan, Hikmet Aliyev, Seymur Rzayev and Ilyas Yıldırım, all of whom had ties with the Iranian Intelligence. They convened in an Istanbul cafe where they discussed the “digital cargo” on sale by an IS member.

The dossier, as per Soğuksu, was stolen from the Deash leadership, and the terrorists were in the process of seeing it for Iranian intelligence. The IS members were negotiating the sale of the database with the five men, unaware of their links with the Iranian intelligence, the Turkish surveillance revealed. The men agreed to sell the dossier for the price of 8.5 million euros ($9.33 million) and hand it over in Istanbul. "Iranian Ministry of Intelligence (VAJA) told the men that it was ready to pay the price after seeing a preview of the database," as per Turkish surveillance.

Turkish police launched the covert operation as the courier arrived in Istanbul for the sale. They nabbed the man after intercepting him at the arrivals terminal of Istanbul Airport. The five men working for Iranian intelligence were also arrested on the scene. 

A Turkish convoy, and troops deployed near Syrian town of Manbij. Credit: Associated Press

The paper identified Seymur Rzayev as an Azerbaijan citizen of Iranian origin who is involved in a secret project for the manufacturing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in Iran. Another Iranian national, Aliyev, operates a cargo company between Türkiye and Turkic countries, while Çalışkan and Çelik are the entrepreneurs who supply spare parts for Iran’s strategic defense projects.