Turkey: IS fighter nabbed after hair transplant to ‘look better’
Turkish police arrested a Frenchman suspected of being an Islamic State fighter after he had a hair transplant procedure at a beauty salon, according to media reports on Thursday.
Turkish police arrested a Frenchman suspected of being an Islamic State fighter after he had a hair transplant procedure at a beauty salon, according to media reports on Thursday.
The man, identified as Mehdibend Said, told investigators he had planned to have plastic surgery to “look better”, the Dogan news agency quoted police sources as saying.
Said had been under surveillance after entering Turkey from Syria as he had been allegedly plotting a terror attack on Turkish soil.
He was arrested at dawn on Wednesday after Turkish intelligence services in the town of Izmir, on the Aegean coast, followed him to a clinic where he had the hair transplant.
Said had been listed by French authorities as a French national who had joined the ranks of the IS. Unaware that he was being followed, Said went to the beauty salon in Izmir’s Karsiyaka district to get the hair transplant.
Turkish security forces have clamped down on suspected jihadists since 102 people were killed in a suicide bombing outside the central station in Ankara, in an attack blamed on IS militants.
Last week, police swooped on 20 IS suspects in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, days ahead of a summit of world leaders from the Group of 20 nations, including US President Barack Obama and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
(With inputs from agencies)