ISTANBUL, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police on Sunday detained a suspected senior member of the Islamic State (IS) in Istanbul, local media reported.
The suspect, an Afghan national with a code name "Basim," was believed to be the right-hand man of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who was killed in 2019 in Syria, the NTV broadcaster said.
The militant group led by al-Baghdadi announced the establishment of a caliphate, or the so-called Islamic State, in June 2014, after it seized a large swathe of territories across Iraq and Syria. Several terrorist groups in other countries swore allegiance to the IS.
However, regional countries, with support of the international community, have retaken cities and towns from the IS in recent years.
Turkey has recently intensified raids against the IS members in the country. According to the NTV, the Turkish National Intelligence Agency and anti-terrorism teams have jointly launched an operation to capture Basim who was thought to be the chief of the military wing of the IS after he arrived in Turkey with a fake passport.
The IS was blamed for a spate of deadly attacks in Turkey since 2015.
