A pro-government Turkish newspaper has published images of 15 men who they allege to be Mossad operatives detained in Istanbul. 

The men were arrested earlier this month by Turkish officials in what they called a ‘crackdown of spy cells’ within the country.

According to the Daily Sabah, a Turkish newspaper,  last week 200 members of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization co-ordinated an operation where five spy teams were uncovered after operating in Turkey for over a year. 

A spokeswoman for the Turkish authorities told a Jordanian paper:” Turkish intelligence thwarted a Mossad network consisting of 15 people, organised into three-person cells that are active with the aim of spying in our country.”

Turkey claims that the most senior operative arrested, named only as “AZ” was a Mossad agent living in Germany that directed teams across Turkey. Others who are being detained include human sources that the Turkish government has accused of selling information about Palestinians living in Turkey to Mossad.