Alleged ISIS leader in Turkey confesses plans to attack opposition leaders, LGBTI+s, tourists

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The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has filed a case against Kasım Güler, who was arrested on the allegation of leading the so-called "Turkey province" of ISIS.

Seventy-four page confessions of the ISIS operative code-named "Abu Usama al-Turki" were included in the case file, Deutsche Welle Turkish service reported.

The group had planned to assassinate opposition leaders and carry out attacks on tourists, LGBTI+s and Alevis, a religious minority, according to confessions of Güler.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, also a member of the CHP, were the group's targets, he said.

Also, Cappadocia hot air balloons, a popular tourist attraction in Turkey, the İncirlik Military Base in Adana, which hosts US military personnel, and the Zöhre Ana Cemevi, an Alevi place of worship in the capital city of Ankara, were among the ISIS targets, according to Güler.

Güler also admitted that ISIS perpetrated the 2015 Ankara bombings, the 2014 Suruç bombings, the 2016 Antep bombing, and the 2017 nightclub shooting in İstanbul. (AEK/VK)