Öykü Altuntaş / Istanbul, Sep 4 () - The Suruç massacre was on the agenda of the global meeting of INTERPOL - world’s largest international police organization - against the threat of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) killing and injuring tens of thousands of people around the world each year, in Australia.
International Counter-Improvised Explosive Device Leaders’ Forum organized by INTERPOL Australian Federal Police and the Australian Department of Defence on September 2-4, gathered more than 300 key governmental representatives, Along with law enforcement and military services, from some 70 countries.
The key aim of the Forum was declared to “enhance cooperation between government, law enforcement and military communities by developing stronger links between counter-terrorism (CT) and CIED efforts to ensure more effective sharing of actionable intelligence”.
Since the beginning of 2015, an estimated number of 10,000 civilian casualties from IED attacks have been registered around the world, while almost half of these included suicide attacks.
While suicide bombers have targeted two mosques in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, resulting the deadliest attack with 137 deaths and a further 345 injured, on March 20, recent incidents included the attack on the Amara Cultural Centre in Suruc, Turkey, near the Syrian border. A bomb attack in Suruc on July 20, has killed 32 young activists of Federation of Socialist Youth Associations, during a meeting to discuss the reconstruction of the neighbouring Syrian town of Kobane. The young people had been planning to travel to Kobane to help with rebuilding the town.
“We must focus on the very thing that terrorist networks have relied upon – and that is the sharing of information. Our weakness has become their strength and this must be reversed” said Australian Minister of Defence, Government Whip Andrew Nikolic , marking the vital role of INTERPOL.
A project launched earlier this year, INTERPOL’s ‘Project Watchmaker’ has built on Foreign Terrorist Fighter database through assisting member countries to identify and track suspects in the illicit manufacture or use of explosives. The Project has already boosted 600 INTERPOL Notices and warning messages, along with its analytical and operational support.
