Turkey cracked down ISIL plans to hit Hagia Sophia mosque and to kidnap senior Turkish statesmen and politicians to Syria, said the country’s interior minister about the operations after the so-called Emir of Turkey was arrested, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.
“For the last one or one and a half month, ISIL is in preparations for an attack on Hagia Sophia, some other economical places and some associations in Istanbul,” said Süleyman Soylu.
According to the minister, the terrorist group was trying to form hit-teams of 10-12 people for these attacks.
“On Aug. 18, the security units captured ISIL suspect, Hüseyin Sağır with his Kalashnikov [assault rifle], who was reported plotting an attack. Then over him, we came at the so-called Emir of Turkey on Aug. 20,” Soylu told daily Hurriyet.
As part of all these operations against the group, police occupied digital materials, in which all the plans were stored.
The interrogations of the ISIL suspects are still ongoing, according to the minister.
Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque from a museum on July 24 and was opened for worship after 86 years.
