During an interview with reporters on the plane on his way back from his Balkans visit, President Erdoğan announced that the Turkish National Police, the Istanbul Police Department and the National Intelligence Organisation carried out a significant operation against the DAESH terrorist organisation and that the terrorist Bashar Khattab Ghazal al-Sumaidai, codenamed "Abu Zeid/Master Zeid", who is among most important senior executives of the DAESH, was captured in Türkiye.
"After Baghdadi and Qardash, he is one of the most important senior executives of DAESH"
Noting that, after the death of the terrorist organisation DAESH's leader Abu Bakr Baghdadi and his successor Abdul Nasser Qardash, he was one of the most important senior executives of the organisation, President Erdoğan added:
"International reports and the UN Security Report also contained information that this terrorist was one of the senior executives of the DAESH terrorist organisation. According to his statement during the interrogation, he was a 'qadi', minister of education and justice. This terrorist's connections in Syria and Istanbul had been followed for a long time, and intelligence information was obtained that he would enter Türkiye illegally. And this terrorist was caught by the successful operation of the National Police Intelligence, National Intelligence Organisation and Istanbul Police Department. The Istanbul security units determined that the terrorist used a fake identity card and travelled in disguise."
President Erdoğan informed that the captured DAESH terrorist had been handed over to judicial authorities upon the instruction of the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office after the interrogation by the National Intelligence Organisation and the Istanbul Police Department.
He was identified as a "DAESH executive" in the UN Security Council report
It was also mentioned in the 30th regular report of the United Nations Security Council, published on July 11, 2022, that the captured DAESH member Bashar Khattab Ghazal al-Sumaidai was involved in the management of the terrorist organisation.
The report states that "On February 3, DAESH leader Amir Muhammad Sa'id Abdal-Rahman al-Salbi was killed in the US-led operation in Atmah in the north-western Syrian Arab Republic, near the Turkish border; DAESH acknowledged that their leader was killed, and Abu l-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Qurashi would take al-Salbi's place; although the identity of Abu al-Hassan has yet to be determined, it is considered among the member states that this person is most likely Bashar Khattap Ghazal Al-Sumaidai of Iraq."
