The Turkish police on Saturday night issued a warning, according to which the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization plans to attack synagogues and churches during the Christian holiday of Easter on Sunday.
In the warning, reported by the local Anatolia and cited by Channel 2, police say Jews and Christians are likely to be targets of attacks.
Turkish police warn that ISIS jihadists in recent days have been searching for attack targets including consuls and embassies, but primarily churches and synagogues in the capital city of Ankara.
Adding weight to the warning is the fact that just a week ago on Saturday, an ISIS suicide bomber tracked Israeli tourists and detonated an explosive among them, murdering three Israelis as well as an Iranian, and wounding 39 others including 11 Israelis.
The three murdered Israelis were Simcha Damari, Yonatan Suher and Avraham Goldman. As for the terrorist, he was identified as 24-year-old Mehmet Ozturk of Turkey.
Local Turkish security sources last Tuesday revealed that Ozturk had been known to security forces but was not tracked, leaving him free to launch his murderous attack.
Ozturk had been identified as a “supporter of a terrorist group,” and repeatedly traveled to Syria – and yet he was not on the national judiciary informatics system (UYAP) and was not being actively tracked.
According to the sources, he was not on the informatics system because “his family did not notify the police about his disappearance or his membership” to ISIS.
Further highlighting the shortcomings of police action is the fact that Ozturk was captured in 2015 in the Elbeyli district of the province of Kilis in the south, after crossing into Turkey from Syria illegally with his brother who was identified by the initials Y.O., as well as a number of other people. He was freed following an ID check because his name was not on the wanted list.
