A suspected Daesh terrorist who was killed during a police raid in capital Ankara in the early hours of Wednesday has been identified as a man from southeast Turkey.
The governor of Ankara province, Ercan Topaca, said 24-year-old Ahmet B. from Diyarbakir province had intended to carry out a suicide attack in the capital and had been spotted visiting Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, on three occasions as well as the former parliament building.
Both are sites for forthcoming events -- Republic Day on Oct. 29 and the anniversary of Ataturk’s death on Nov. 10.
Turkey’s intelligence agency recently issued a warning of possible imminent attacks by Daesh in five provinces, including Ankara, and on Monday Topaca’s office issued a ban on public gatherings until Nov. 30 due to the terror threat. However, Republic Day and the anniversary were not included in the ban.
Topaca said the suspect had been tracked to an address in Etimesgut, a district to the west of Ankara city center that mainly comprises of large public housing projects, after his links to Daesh were uncovered.