In a daring raid into the Syrian regime heartland of Latakia, Turkish agents snatched the key suspect in one of Turkey’s worst terror attacks and brought him over the border, state media reported.
Turkey's National Intelligence Organisation carried out a "pinpoint operation" to arrest Yusuf Nazik, who reportedly confessed to planning the 2013 car bombing in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli that killed 53 people.
According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Mr Nazik, 34, told Turkish investigators that Syrian intelligence orchestrated the attack.
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Turkey’s intelligence service, known as MIT, reportedly carried out the operation to capture him “without the help of foreign agencies” but it provided no details on when or how Mr Nazik was taken.
Ankara and Damascus are on opposing sides of the Syrian conflict, with Turkey backing rebel groups and sending soldiers to the Syria's northeast. Turkey is also trying to prevent a looming Syrian government offensive backed by Russian and Iranian allies on Idlib province.
In a video released by the Turkish government, Mr Nazik wore a blue tracksuit jacket and jeans, and stood next to a Turkish flag. He called on other suspects to surrender and warned Turkey would hold the Bashar Al Assad regime to account for the 2013 attack.
“I was not able to escape from the Turkish state,” he said in the video released on Wednesday. “I am calling out to my friends in Syria; turn back while there still is time. The Turkish state will protect us. I am calling out to the state of Syria; the Turkish state will make you pay eventually.”
The attack on May 11, 2013, involved a car bomb parked outside municipal offices which left a large crater in the ground and destroyed nearby buildings when it exploded. Minutes later, a second car bomb detonated outside a post office less than a mile away. The second blast sent vehicles flying through the air.
Most of the casualties were Turks but a number of Syrian refugees were also killed in the blasts only miles from the Syrian border.
Mr Nazik, a Turkish citizen from nearby Antakya, was one of several suspects wanted in connection with the attack. He reportedly admitted scouting targets, taking explosives across the border from Syria as well as obtaining and loading the vehicles used in the attack, Anadolu said.
He identified his Syrian contact as an intelligence officer called Mohammed who went by the code name Hadji.
“We take the information provided by Yusuf Nazik about the involvement of Syrian intelligence operatives in the 2013 Reyhanli attack very seriously,” a senior Turkish government official said.
“His testimony corroborates long-standing rumours about the Assad regime’s active role in the bombing, which killed 53 innocent people.
“Nazik’s capture and repatriation should serve as a reminder to all other criminals that we will never stop hunting them. We will spare no effort to find you, catch you, and bring you to justice.”
Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul praised the operation. “Our state will come after every kind of terrorist group and our independent judiciary will deliver fair punishment, wherever the culprit may be,” he said.
Turkish intelligence has carried out a series of overseas operations in recent months targeting those it suspects of belonging to a group said to be behind a 2016 coup attempt.
In February, a court in Ankara passed life sentences against nine people involved in the Reyhanli attack. Thirteen others received terms of up to 15 years.
The Syrian state is suspected of involvement in several bombings near and across its borders in the early years of the civil war. In Lebanon, a double suicide bombing in the country’s second city of Tripoli on August 23, 2013 killed at least 47 people and wounded more than 500 others. The attack was the biggest and deadliest bombing since the country’s 15-year civil war.
In a 44-page indictment issued in 2016, Lebanese judge Alaa Khatib identified Syrian intelligence officers Mohammad Ali Ali from the "Palestine Branch" and Nasser Joubeen from the "Political Security Directorate" as the planners of the attack, the country’s National News Agency reported.
The five pillars of Islam
MATCH INFO
Liverpool 2 (Van Dijk 18', 24')
Brighton 1 (Dunk 79')
Red card: Alisson (Liverpool)
Zayed Sustainability Prize
TWISTERS
Director:+Lee+Isaac+Chung
Starring:+Glen+Powell,+Daisy+Edgar-Jones,+Anthony+Ramos
Rating:+2.5/5
Normcore explained
Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Revibe
Started: 2022
Founders: Hamza Iraqui and Abdessamad Ben Zakour
Based: UAE
Industry: Refurbished electronics
Funds raised so far: $10m
Investors: Flat6Labs, Resonance and various others
Founders: Ines Mena, Claudia Ribas, Simona Agolini, Nourhan Hassan and Therese Hundt
Date started: January 2017, app launched November 2017
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Private/Retail/Leisure
Number of Employees: 18 employees, including full-time and flexible workers
Funding stage and size: Seed round completed Q4 2019 - $1m raised
Funders: Oman Technology Fund, 500 Startups, Vision Ventures, Seedstars, Mindshift Capital, Delta Partners Ventures, with support from the OQAL Angel Investor Network and UAE Business Angels
Manchester City (0) v Liverpool (3)
Uefa Champions League, quarter-final, second leg
Where: Etihad Stadium
When: Tuesday, 10.45pm
Live on beIN Sports HD
ROUTE TO TITLE
Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2
Hamilton’s 2017
Australia - 2nd; China - 1st; Bahrain - 2nd; Russia - 4th; Spain - 1st; Monaco - 7th; Canada - 1st; Azerbaijan - 5th; Austria - 4th; Britain - 1st; Hungary - 4th; Belgium - 1st; Italy - 1st; Singapore - 1st; Malaysia - 2nd; Japan - 1st; United States - 1st; Mexico - 9th
BIRD BOX BARCELONA
Directors: David and Alex Pastor
Stars: Georgina Campbell, Mario Casas, Diego Calva
Rating: 2/5
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
THE TWIN BIO
Their favourite city: Dubai
Their favourite food: Khaleeji
Their favourite past-time : walking on the beach
Their favorite quote: ‘we rise by lifting others’ by Robert Ingersoll
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
Company Profile
Company name: Namara
Started: June 2022
Founder: Mohammed Alnamara
Based: Dubai
Sector: Microfinance
Current number of staff: 16
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Family offices
Padmaavat
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh
3.5/5
START-UPS IN BATCH 4 OF SANABIL 500'S ACCELERATOR PROGRAMME
Saudi Arabia
Joy: Delivers car services with affordable prices
Karaz: Helps diabetics with gamification, IoT and real-time data
Medicarri: Medical marketplace that connects clinics with suppliers
Mod5r: Makes automated and recurring investments to grow wealth
Stuck: Live, on-demand language support to boost writing
Walzay: Helps in recruitment while reducing hiring time
UAE
Eighty6: Marketplace for restaurant and supplier procurements
FarmUnboxed: Helps digitise international food supply chain
NutriCal: Helps F&B businesses and governments with nutritional analysis
Wellxai: Provides insurance that enables and rewards user habits
Egypt
Amwal: A Shariah-compliant crowd-lending platform
Deben: Helps CFOs manage cash efficiently
Egab: Connects media outlets to journalists in hard-to-reach areas for exclusives
Neqabty: Digitises financial and medical services of labour unions
Oman
Monak: Provides financial inclusion and life services to migrants
'Avengers: Infinity War'
Dir: The Russo Brothers
Starring: Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Robert Downey Junior, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen
Four stars
Read more from Aya Iskandarani
Kill
Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
Starring: Lakshya, Tanya Maniktala, Ashish Vidyarthi, Harsh Chhaya, Raghav Juyal
Rating: 4.5/5
Company Profile
Name: Direct Debit System
Started: Sept 2017
Based: UAE with a subsidiary in the UK
Industry: FinTech
Funding: Undisclosed
Investors: Elaine Jones
Number of employees: 8