Turkey nabs French IS jihadist after hair transplant

Police detain 11 in raids

ISTANBUL, Nov 12, (Agencies): Turkish police arrested a Frenchman suspected of being an Islamic State fighter on Wednesday after he had a hair transplant procedure at a beauty salon, local media reported.

The Dogan news agency quoted police sources saying the man, identified as Mehdibend Said, was under surveillance after entering the country from Syria, where he was plotting a terrorist attack on Turkish soil.

He was arrested at dawn after local intelligence services in the town of Izmir, on the Aegean coast, followed him to a clinic where he had the hair transplant.

Said told investigators he had also hoped to have a second cosmetic procedure to make him “look better”.

Turkish security forces have clamped down hard 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.

Turkish police detained 11 suspects in helicopterbacked raids targeting Islamic State militants across Istanbul, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Thursday, just days ahead of a G20 summit being held in the country.

The raids were part of a series of operations against suspected militants in Turkey, where security is being tightened ahead of the world leaders’ summit being staged this weekend. In this Oct 6, 2015 file photo, migrants wait to be registered at a camp set up for migrants from Afghanistan near Moria on the island of Lesbos, Greece. As tens of thousands of Afghans flee war and poverty for a better life in Europe, some are resorting to forged threat letters from the Taleban to strengthen their applications for asylum. (AP)