Islamic State Report on Clashes with Turkish Security Forces
During the Syrian civil war, Turkey became an important hub for the influx of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State as such individuals would normally enter Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria via Turkey. Of course, as the Islamic State lost territory, that influx into Syria greatly reduced, but it is likely that links still exist today between Islamic State operatives inside Turkish territory and ‘Islamic State central’ in Iraq and Syria.
More recently, it is clear that Turkey has become a logistical and operational hub and recruitment pipeline for the Islamic State’s ‘Khorasan province’ (which encompasses Afghanistan and part of the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands). For example, some supporters of the Islamic State from Tajikistan have reportedly travelled to Afghanistan via Turkey and Iran, rather than attempting to cross the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border. A recent useful overview of the matter can be found in a study by Peter Neumann, Zora Hauser and Niles Breuer.
It should be stressed though that none of this means that the Turkish government is somehow supporting the Islamic State. In fact, the Islamic State has repeatedly denounced the Turkish government as an ‘apostate’ entity that should be fought and destroyed, for various reasons such as (i) not implementing the absolute rule of Islamic law, (ii) espousing a nationalist outlook, and (iii) supporting various Syrian groups to fight the Islamic State, such as in the ‘Euphrates Shield’ campaign in 2016.
The latest report from the Islamic State’s al-Naba’ newsletter features a report on recent clashes between Islamic State operatives in Turkey and Turkish security forces in the northwest of the country. These clashes broke out as a result of an attempted crackdown on Islamic State by the Turkish government in fear of impending attacks on Christmas and New Year celebrations. The report is translated below. Parenthetical insertions in square brackets are my own. That the Islamic State has issued its own report on the matter suggests an acknowledgement that the operatives are actual members of the organisation.