(FNA) -- Zaman daily reported that ISIS has a secret mosque in Istanbul that is used by the terrorist group for recruiting fighters.
Zaman went on to say that a probe carried out by the general prosecutor of Sakarya city in Western Turkey disclosed that a man named Eywa Najouk nom de guerre Abu Hanzalah has embarked on setting up a secret mosque for ISIS in the town of Ada Bazari in Sakarya province East of Istanbul.
The Turkish paper also disclosed that after the arrest of Abu Hanzalah that was the leader of ISIS in Turkey, eight others were arrested while preparing to move to Syria via Abu Hanzala, adding that the detainees have already acknowledged that they have joined ISIS via Abu Hanzala.
Zaman also said that the secret mosque, established by Abu Hanzalah, was used for holding secret meetings and attracting fresh forces for ISIS.
Security sources also said that Abu Hanzalah had been arrested in 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2015 on charges of commanding al-Qaeda in Turkey, but was freed in 2016.
Social networks, meantime, embarked on releasing voice files of Abu Hanzalah, saying, "After the conquest of Syria, we will go to Turkey and conquest Istanbul."
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said last month that the terrorist groups of ISIS and Al-Nusra Front (also known as Fatah al-Sham Front or the Levant Liberation Board) and the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were following the same path in Syria,
“In fact, we cannot separate all these groups. ISIS and Al-Nusra have the same Wahhabi ideology and the same terrorist doctrine. ISIS, Al-Nusra and Erdogan that is affiliated with the Muslims Brotherhood, al Saud, and al Thani in Qatar, uphold the same doctrine,” the Syrian President told ONT news agency.
“All these groups have something in common which is the extremist Wahhabi ideology. And all of them are instruments in the hands of the United States,” Assad added.
“I’m not saying that they are instruments in the hands of the West, because Western Europe doesn’t practically exist on the political map. Europe implements what America wants, without any objection. All of these groups operate under the American leadership. So, whether we say that they are foreign powers, ISIS and Al-Nusra, or others, the director and financier is the same. They are all one group but with different names and different tactics,” Assad concluded.
In the past, Assad had accused Erdogan of being a Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer, adding that the Turkish President has facilitated the growth of ISIS and Al-Nusra in Syria.
Media outlets said in May that the Turkish army and militants supported by Ankara forced the young people who left al-Wa'er district in Homs for Northern Syria to fight for them.
Hawar news quoted a local source in al-Ra'i district of al-Shahba region that the Turkish army deprived the residents of food and forced them, specially the under-18-year-old children, to fight and work for them.
The source added that al-Wa'er residents immigrated to the region based on the Turkey-backed militants' fake promises and then were treated awfully in a way that if the conditions continue, they would die of hunger.
Noting that the militants were under the direct command of the Turkish spy agency, he said that the Turkish army promised to give them a monthly salary of $300 but did not pay anything to them after they came to Northern Syria.