A Canadian citizen with suspected links to Islamic State was arrested near the Turkish border with Syria on March 10, according to Turkish media reports.
The Anadolu News Agency says the man, identified only as “Wassim B.,” is suspected of providing weapons training to Islamic State fighters in Syria. He was arrested at an airport in the southern Turkish city of Adana, from where he was planning to return to Canada via Greece.
READ MORE: ISIS is still trying to recruit Canadians on social media, CSIS warns
Global Affairs Canada acknowledged that a Canadian citizen was detained in Adana, but declined to confirm the individual’s identity.
“Consular services are being provided to a Canadian citizen who has been detained in Adana, Turkey, as well as to their family. Consular officials are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information,” spokesperson Brittany Venhola-Fletcher told Global News in an emailed statement.
Turkish authorities reportedly interrogated the suspect and seized documents as well as photos and videos showing him firing weapons in the Syrian countryside.
Photos and videos of the man published by Turkish news organizations bear resemblance to Wassim Boughadou, 25, a Montreal-born man suspected of being involved in the 2013 kidnapping of two American journalists in Syria.
In an interview with LaPresse in January 2017, Boughadou claimed that he turned religious at age 18, and left Canada in 2012 because he didn’t feel welcome in Quebecois society.
At the time, he said that he would never return to Canada.
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