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Turkey nabs jihadist at salon after hair transplant

French citizen, under surveillance since entering the country, is suspected of planning a terrorist attack

By AFP and ToI Staff 12 November 2015, 8:51 am

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Illustrative before and after pictures of a hair transplantation procedure. (Jerzy Kolasiński/Wikimedia Commons)

Turkish police arrested a French citizen suspected of being an Islamic State fighter on Wednesday after he had a hair transplant procedure at a beauty salon, local media reported.

The Dogan news agency quoted police sources saying the man, identified as Mehdibend Said, was under surveillance after entering the country from Syria, where he was plotting a terrorist attack on Turkish soil.

He was arrested at dawn after local intelligence services in the town of Izmir, on the Aegean coast, followed him to a clinic where he had the hair transplant.

Said told investigators he had also hoped to have a second cosmetic procedure to make him “look better.”

Hair transplantation is a treatment for male pattern baldness in which hair follicles are taken from one part of the body and transferred to the scalp.

Turkish security forces have clamped down hard on suspected jihadists since 102 people were killed in a suicide bombing outside the central station in Ankara, in an attack blamed on IS militants.

Last week, police swooped on 20 IS suspects in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, days ahead of a summit of world leaders from the Group of 20 nations, including US President Barack Obama and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.