Allied Intelligence — 2026-05-25

Turkish MIT and Syrian Intelligence Capture 10 Daesh Suspects Including Figure Linked to 2015 Ankara Bombing

BLUFCapturing Daesh's assessed Turkey intelligence chief alongside a 2015 Ankara bombing suspect removes the connective tissue between the group's Syrian remnant and its domestic attack planning, while validating Ankara-Damascus security cooperation as an operational instrument.

Turkish MIT and Syrian intelligence captured 10 Daesh suspects in Syria on May 23 and transferred them to Türkiye, where nine were formally arrested and one held in extended detention, Turkish security sources told Daily Sabah 12. All ten held Interpol Red Notices and were identified as Turkish nationals who had joined Daesh in Syria in prior years 13. Among those seized was Ömer Deniz Dündar, linked by security sources to the 2015 Ankara twin bombings that killed 109, on the basis of fingerprint evidence recovered from suicide bomber explosive devices in 2017 14. Ali Bora, identified by the same sources as Daesh's intelligence chief for Turkey operations, was said to have joined the group in 2014 and participated in planning attacks against Turkish military forces 123.

Analysis
Daesh loses its assessed Turkey intelligence chief and a figure fingerprint-linked to the 2015 Ankara bombings, degrading Syria-resident nodes bridging its residual structure to domestic attack planning, though individual role attributions and evidentiary claims rest on unverified Turkish security sources. The MIT-Damascus operation confirms al-Sharaa-era cooperation has crossed into field-actionable coordination, closing the Syrian haven that shielded Turkish Daesh fugitives. Interrogation reporting on attack instructions, training pipelines, and propaganda networks suggests further network disruption will accelerate. Türkiye's pace of over a thousand arrests in 2026 marks a sustained dismantlement campaign, though the selection of these ten for their 2015 Ankara symbolic resonance may mask a network retaining operational depth this profile does not capture.

4 sources

Turkiyes MIT captures 10 Daesh suspects in joint Syria operation - Daily Sabah
Turkish and Syrian officials detain 10 individuals with alleged ISIL ties - Al Jazeera
Türkiye captures 10 ISIL suspects in Syria - Hurriyet Daily News
Ten ISIS terrorists captured in joint Turkey-Syria operation - The Jerusalem Post