ISIL Revealed To Have Conducted Reconnaissance Before Suruç Bombing

It has been discovered that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) conducted reconnaissance in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruç in Şanlıurfa province shortly before a deadly bomb attack that claimed the lives of 33 people.

Two suspected ISIL militants who were doing reconnaissance in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa were detained and their weapons were confiscated only 15 days before the Suruç bombing, Today's Zaman has learned. While they were subsequently arrested, the entire incident was kept secret.

The two suspected ISIL militants were doing reconnaissance near the Yenişehir neighborhood police station, next to which a National Intelligence Organization (MİT) building and government housing for police officers are also located, according to sources who are familiar with the case.

A police officer who was working in the security booth in front of the Yenişehir police station noticed the suspicious behavior of the two men who were taking photos on a footbridge that overlooks the government buildings. The militants were detained and found to have weapons, ISIL propaganda as well as video footage and photos of state institutions in the area.

After their interrogation at the Şanlıurfa Police Department's counterterrorism branch, the two suspected ISIL militants were transferred to a Şanlıurfa courthouse to be arrested and were later held in detention. Şanlıurfa Chief of Police Eyüp Pınarbaşı and Şanlıurfa Governor İzzettin Küçük specifically demanded that the trial be performed in secret in an effort to prevent the media from finding out about the incident, sources said.

On July 20 a suicide bomb attack that has been blamed on ISIL took place at a cultural center in Şanlıurfa's Suruç district where a large group of activists was holding a press conference before they planned to cross the border to assist in the rebuilding of the Syrian border town of Kobani. The attack killed 33 people and left more than 100 injured. The city of Kobani was once captured by ISIL and was devastated during the battle with the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) -- affiliated with terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- who pushed ISIL back.

İsmail Avcı Diyarbakır (Cihan/Today's Zaman)