10 August 2017•Update: 11 August 2017
By Bekir Omer Fansa, Yusuf Koyun and Neset Karadag
ADANA, Turkey
A Russian national arrested Thursday over alleged plans to crash a drone into a U.S. military flight has been remanded into custody, police said.
Renat Bakiev, an alleged Daesh militant, was arrested while he was carrying out surveillance in preparation for an attack at the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey’s Adana province, the Security Directorate of Adana police said in a statement.
The base is used by aircraft carrying out missions in Syria as part of the U.S.-led anti-Daesh coalition.
Daesh has used explosives-laden commercial aerial drones to carry out ground attacks in Iraq and Syria.
Police said Bakiev had confessed to being a member of Daesh and being in Adana to carry out an attack for the terror group.
He had been in contact with the terror group via the Telegram messaging app to raise 2,800 Turkish liras (about $793) to buy an aerial drone, the statement added.
Police said Bakiev had also targeted civilians and Alevi associations in the Adana area. Alevis practice a form of Shia Islam.
The Russian was previously the subject of a charge of membership of a terrorist group by the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the southern province of Kilis. He had also appeared in court in Tekirdag province, northwest of Istanbul, for making threats.
In June, counterterrorism police in Adana arrested 11 Daesh suspects said to have plotted a truck bombing at Incirlik.
