It has emerged that the man who drove to Ankara with the two suicide bombers who perpetrated Turkey's deadliest terrorist attack had been under police surveillance since September.
According to information obtained by Today's Zaman, Yakup Şahin, the driver, had been physically tailed and electronically tracked by the intelligence unit of the Gaziantep Police Department on suspicions of having ties with members of the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The police had kept track of those whom Şahin had contacted in Gaziantep. But Şahin managed to lose the police tail for 24 hours just two days before the Oct. 10 attack.
On Oct. 9, the police once again received a signal from Şahin's cell phone that revealed he was in Gaziantep, a town on the Syrian border. Later on Oct. 10, his cell phone signals indicated he was in Ankara.
It has been claimed his cell phone signals were unable to be tracked by the police during the 24 hours in which he drove to Ankara from Gaziantep. In addition, the intelligence unit of the Gaziantep Police Department did not inform the intelligence units of the national and Ankara police departments about the suspect's journey to Ankara.
The official death toll so far from the twin suicide bombings in the heart of the capital on Oct. 10 is 102. Thirty-six of the more than 500 wounded are being treated in intensive care units in various hospitals.
A Cumhuriyet daily report said on Wednesday Şahin revealed in his statement before the court the names of two high-level figures of the terrorist ISIL upon whose instructions the bombings were conducted.
According to the report, Şahin had escorted the vehicle in which the two suicide bombers rode from the border province of Gaziantep to Ankara a day before the attack.
The report said the ones who ordered the massacre are H.İ.D. and Y.D., who is also known by his code name Muhammed Ali.
Top government officials had earlier claimed, without providing any evidence, that some other terrorist organizations such as the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) may have also been accomplices in the crime.
According to the report, Şahin admitted his role in the crime during the police interrogation. He also reportedly asked in his statement to be allowed to enjoy the protection of the laws related to witness protection and active repentance, arguing he had revealed all he knows about ISIL.
Yunus Emre Alagöz, an ISIL sympathizer who is one of the confirmed perpetrators of the twin bombings, was accompanied by three other foreigners when he arrived in Turkey from Syria, an investigation conducted by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has revealed.
The police have been trying to identify the second suicide bomber, believed to be a foreign ISIL member, in the attack.
Opposition parties have long accused the government of offering support to the terrorist ISIL and of turning a blind eye to its activities in Turkey.
According to the report, upon Şahin's demand, the other suspects were brought out of the court while he testified.
Şahin also reportedly said he could help identify a potential suicide bomber whom he saw in an ISIL cell house before setting out for Ankara if he was shown a picture of that person.
Şahin reportedly returned to Gaziantep following the suicide bombings with his cousin Hakan Şahin who said he was in Ankara for medical treatment. Hakan reportedly arrived in Ankara two days before the attack and stayed in a hotel in Ulus district.
Four people were arrested following the deadly attack amid criticisms of huge flaws in security on the part of the government. The police are currently seeking two foreign potential suicide bombers who had accompanied the perpetrators of the Ankara attack while they were entering Turkey from Syria.
Şahin, who is among those arrested, was reportedly taken to the prosecutor's office for interrogation for the second time on Tuesday.
According to the report, two people who have ties with H.İ.D. were also arrested as part of the investigation.
İbrahim Halil Alçay, who is one of the two people with links to H.İ.D., reportedly dismissed any link with the radical ISIL or of being an accomplice in the bombings.
The daily quoted Alçay as saying in his testimony, “I have known H.İ.D. for three years. He is an accountant. I sold [him] a Ford Focus with the plate number 34 DM 8574 for TL 55,000 [$19,000]. I received the money in person. But H.İ.D. did not want a record of the transfer [of the car to his name]. … I'm not a member of ISIL or any other [terrorist] organization.”
According to the report, Resul Demir, yet another suspect in the Ankara bombings, said in his statement he was the one who introduced H.İ.D., his high-school friend, to Alçay.
Demir, who also works as accountant in the same company as H.İ.D., reportedly said: “I have never heard him talking about any terrorist organization. He did not show up at work for a week before the day of the bombing. He told me on the phone he had some problems that he needed to settle. He called me on the afternoon of the day of the bombing. He sounded good.”
Video footage shows suicide bombers arriving at site
Security camera footage of Ankara's main train station, the area where the bombing took place, revealed the suicide bombers arrived together at the site by taxi, wearing large coats to hide the explosive belts that were on their persons.
The footage, which was gathered as part of the ongoing investigation into the attack, shows the last 10 minutes before the attack and catches the bombers on camera at three different points in the area.
Alagöz and the other suicide bomber whose identity has not yet been confirmed are seen in the footage arriving near the train station in a taxi. The two figures wearing large coats hiding explosive belts with TNT and iron marbles in them walk towards the crowd without being stopped.
Alagöz is the brother of Sheikh Abdurrahman Alagöz, the suicide bomber of the Suruç attack in July. Alagöz, it turned out, was on a police wanted list since the attack in the town of Suruç on the Syrian border.
