Locals fear Daesh jihadists quietly slipped into Turkey

As the Syrian town of Tal Abyad taken by Kurds from Daesh militants this week looms in the distance, one question troubles the Turkish residents on the other side.

What happened to the defeated jihadists?

Many locals on the Turkish side of the border fear some of the beaten Islamists may have shaven their beards, slipped across, and now be quietly living among them.

"Don't film me smoking," pleads Mustafa, a barber in the Turkish border town of Akcakale.

"It's (the holy Muslim fasting month of) Ramadan. Daesh might see it and cut my fingers," he said using the pejorative Arabic acronym for Daesh, which imposes a harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

Turkey has always vehemently denied accusations it has allowed jihadists to use the border as a transit point. It has given no indication that large numbers of jihadists could have joined Syrian refugees crossing the border.

The governor of the Sanliurfa province, Izzettin Kucuk, said just two unarmed Daesh members gave themselves up at the border when thousands of refugees streamed across at the weekend.

Other reports said five suspected Daesh militants were captured as they attempted to cross into Turkey together with refugees through the barbed wire fence that once sealed the border.

- 'That simple' -

Kurdish forces took the strategic town earlier this week after several days of intense fighting, which sparked an exodus of more than 23,000 refugees into neighbouring Turkey.

Some have started to return home but residents fear Daesh fighters in disguise were among the thousands of refugees who stayed in Akcakale or in nearby camps.

"When IS first took over Tal Abyad, I bought a Kalashnikov. But now that they might be among us, I'm planning on buying something heavier," said Ihsan Kurt, 50, a grocery owner.

"Our town is a ticking bomb," he said.

The fears have been amplified by extraordinary scenes at the weekend -- just before the town was taken by the Kurds -- when Daesh fighters appeared right at the border fence and appeared to grin at the Turkish guards on the other side.

"Because so many refugees crossed the border, the jihadists had a good chance of remaining unnoticed in the crowds. They shave their beard and cross over. It's that simple," said Ismail Yilmaz, a local official from the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

"Once they cross the border, they go to bigger towns or refugee camps where they can hide more easily," he said.

"I've seen them praying at our mosques, I've seen them in our hospitals, I've seen them getting arrested, I've seen them being freed."

The Human Rights Association (IHD) of Turkey NGO said in a recent report on Akcakale that at least 50 Daesh militants crossed over from Tal Abyad to Turkey after Kurdish fighters drove out Daesh militants.

It denounced the Turkish authorities for "not following up the arrival of any of these militants."

"We do not know who is walking our streets anymore. We are helping our brothers and sisters coming from Syria because they are in need of help, but we may well be helping the jihadists unknowingly," said Mustafa, the barber.

- 'They should fear us' -

But Salih Kerpeten, a farmer, said he was not particularly bothered by Daesh presence in town because any newcomers were "not hardliners like foreign fighters."

"I heard that some IS fighters fled to Turkey out of fear. They fled from Daesh," he said.

"We still can't trust them. There are good and bad among them, but how can you differentiate?" he said.

"In any case we have nothing to be afraid of. We are the citizens of Turkey. They should be afraid of us," he said.

In recent months, there have been growing signs that Turkey is responding to Western criticism that it is not doing enough to halt foreign fighters.

The Turkish army said on Wednesday it captured "four terrorists" from Daesh in the southern border province of Kilis as they were trying to cross into Turkey from Syria.
Source: AFP