Turkish police have thwarted an Islamic State terror plot by arresting two EU citizens that allegedly aimed to carry out a “sensational” attack in Europe, a Turkish news agency reported, citing a judicial source. RT reports.
Mahamad Laban, 45, a Lebanon-born Danish citizen, and Mohammed Tofik Saleh, 34, an Iraqi-born Swiss citizen, were detained in the Turkish city of Adana earlier this month, according to the source, who spoke to Anadolu agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
The suspects were brought before an Adana court on Friday following ten days of interrogation and have been returned to custody to await the results of an investigation looking into their activities, Anadolu reported.
According to the Adana police department, Laban and Saleh traveled to Syria via Turkey in 2014 to join the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terror group. Although they initially claimed they had gone to Syria to provide humanitarian aid, a wider investigation reportedly revealed that the suspects had undergone arms and explosives training within the past three months – allegedly to prepare for a large terrorist attack in Europe.
