By Trend

Turkish security forces captured one of the top Daesh terrorists, code-named Abu Zayd, in a counterterrorism operation on Thursday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, Trend reports citing Daily Sabah.

Terrorist Bashar Khattab Ghazal al-Sumaidai, codenamed Abu Zeid/Master Zeid, was captured in a successful operation by the Turkish intelligence and Istanbul police, Erdogan told reporters on the presidential plane on his way back from a three-nation Balkan tour.

"International reports and the U.N. Security report also contained information that this terrorist was one of the senior executives of the Daesh terrorist organization," he noted.

Erdogan said that the police put the terrorist's connections in Syria and Istanbul under surveillance for a long time. There was also intelligence that he would enter Türkiye illegally.

Istanbul Police also found out that the terrorist had been using a fake identity and using props to disguise himself.

The president noted that al-Sumaidai was the top leader of Daesh after Abubakir Baghdadi and Abdullah Kardash’s deaths.

In his testimony, the terrorist confessed that he acted as a so-called judge, the so-called justice and education ministers of Daesh terrorists.