Turkish intel captures senior ISIL member in Syria

ANKARA

A senior ISIL member, Talip Güler, also known by the codename “Abdüsselam Türki,” has been captured in Syria and transferred to Türkiye in an operation carried out by Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT), security sources said on July 13.

Güler, the younger brother of senior ISIL operative Kasım Güler, was a key member of the group’s Türkiye-based network known as the “Farouk Office” Maktab Al-Faruq, according to the sources.

He had been listed among the Interior Ministry’s most wanted terrorism suspects. His brother was similarly detained in an MİT cross-border operation in 2021.

Authorities said Talip Güler entered Syria illegally in early 2014, during the peak of the country’s civil war, and became actively involved in ISIL alongside his brother.

After Kasım Güler’s capture, MİT reportedly tracked Talip Güler’s movements for years before locating and apprehending him in Syria.

Following his transfer to Türkiye, Güler cooperated with investigators, providing information about his radicalization process, his journey into Syria, his recruitment into ISIL and the activities he carried out within the organization.

The operation follows another recent intelligence success in which MİT detained senior ISIL member Ahmet Kazancı before he could reenter Türkiye.