Turkey detained suspects allegedly working for an Iranian intelligence cell that planned to kidnap and assassinate a former Israeli ambassador and tourists visiting or living in Istanbul, Turkish media reported Thursday.
"MİT [the national intelligence organization] and police have received information that kidnappings and killings were planned against Israelis living or visiting as tourists in Istanbul and against a former Israeli ambassador and his wife who were staying at a hotel in the Beyoğlu district," the Hurriyet Daily News reported.
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The report said a former Israeli ambassador and his wife were staying in a hotel in Istanbul's Beyoglu district. Nearly ten suspects, who were not all Iranian nationals, were detained in a raid on three houses. The intelligence agents were disguised as students, while members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were undercover as businessmen and tourists to kidnap and to assassinate Israelis.
The Iranians had split into four groups of two assassins who could better track their Israeli targets. "The hitmen in the assassination team, who settled in two separate rooms on the second and fourth floors of a hotel in Beyoglu, were (detained) with a large number of weapons and ammunition," the local Turkish broadcaster IHA said. According to the report, "the intelligence agency of Israel, Mossad have taken the targeted citizens from their addresses and sent them to Tel Aviv on a private plane."
Israel has in recent weeks urged its citizens to leave Turkey immediately because of "possible" threats from Iranian operatives.
Iran and Israel have been engaged in a years-long shadow war but tensions have ratcheted up following a string of high-profile incidents Tehran has blamed on Israel. The Islamic republic claimed Israel was responsible for the killing of Revolutionary Guards Col. Sayyad Khodai in his Tehran home on May 22. The reported detentions are likely to come up during a visit to Ankara later on Thursday by Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who is expected to take charge as prime minister of a caretaker government in coming days. Turkey's relations with Israel have been improving after years of tensions and tourism is central to the two countries' economic ties.
