IS Planning ‘Imminent’ Attack On Jewish Schools
Exclusive: Islamic State is plotting an “imminent” attack, specifically targeting Jewish children, Sky News can reveal.
By Sam Kiley, Foreign Affairs Editor
Terrorists from the so-called Islamic State have advanced plans to murder Jewish children in Turkey, targeting kindergartens, schools and youth centres, Sky News can reveal.
Information on what intelligence officials are describing as an “imminent” attack was obtained from six operatives from the “Caliphate” who were arrested in the southern city of Gaziantep over the last week.
The most likely target of an attack is Istanbul’s synagogue in Beyoglu, which also has a community centre and a school attached to it.
“In light of these circumstances, extraordinary security measures are being taken above and beyond the high alert level already in place by the Turkish police, as well as vigilance within the Jewish community,” an intelligence source told Sky News.
“Undercover and other covert counter-terror measures are being implemented around the clock.
“This is a more than credible threat. This is an active plot,” the source added.
The series of threats and the specific targeting of Jewish children follow the deadly attack in Istanbul on 19 March when five people were killed by a suicide bomber, including four Israelis, and the murder of another 35 in Brussels last week.
Turkey has absorbed close to three million refugees and there is strong evidence that several members of the Paris and Brussels cell, who have European origins, had travelled to Syria for training and then been smuggled back, hidden in the waves of refugees seeking safety in Europe.
Now it is coming under increasing terrorist pressure from the so-called Islamic State and Kurdish separatists.
The threat against Jewish targets, intelligence sources said, was the best information gathered on an imminent attack.
“We don’t know when it’s scheduled for. It could be in the next 24 hours or next few days,” the source said.