Turkish security forces have arrested several Al-Qaeda ringleaders, including the terrorist group’s second in command in the Middle East, FARS news agency said on Wednesday.

Turkish security forces have arrested several Al-Qaeda ringleaders, including the terrorist group’s second in command in the Middle East, FARS news agency said on Wednesday.

Ebrahim Shan, the second Al-Qaeda man in the Middle East, has been arrested by the security forces on Tuesday during simultaneous counter terrorism operations in six cities across Turkey, Turkish Ceyhan news agency reported.

The Turkish security forces carried out simultaneous operations in Istanbul, Van, Gaziantep, Vikilees, Kayseri and Ezine and arrested a large number of Al-Qaeda terrorists during the operations.

At least three people were arrested in simultaneous police raids in Istanbul while a fourth person was detained in the central Turkish city of Kayseri.

Saudi Arabia is a staunch supporter of Al-Qaeda militants fighting against the Syrian and Iraqi governments.

In a similar move, the Iraqi security forces arrested a notorious Al-Qaeda ringleader in the Western Al-Anbar province near the Syrian border earlier this week.

Maher Al-Jarshi, a Jordanian military advisor of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group, was arrested as he was crossing the borders into Iraq’s Al-Anbar province from Syria on Tuesday.

Security sources in Baghdad said Saudi Arabia has hired and financed al-Qaeda-affiliated ISIL to fight a proxy war against Iraq's Shiite government.

“Ahmed al-Alwani (an Iraqi MP held on terrorism charges after clashes killed at least six people during arrest raid on his home) and Ali al-Sulaiman (the chief of the Dulaim tribes in al-Anbar province) who are under prosecution have paved the political ground for terrorism and the ISIL has entered a proxy war to fight for Saudi Arabia,” Head of the Security Committee of Baghdad province’s Council Sa’d al-Matlabi was quoted as saying by the Palestinian al-Manar weekly.

He said that al-Alwani who was arrested by the security forces and al-Sulaiman who has called for Jihad against the Iraqi army have created a ground for the spread of terrorism.

In relevant remarks last Tuesday, Aliyah Nassif, a member of the De-Ba'athification Commission, said that al-Alwani and former Iraqi Finance Minister Rafi al-Issawi have had contacts with the Saudi intelligence agency.

Nassif said that a number of Iraqi politicians have good relations with certain regional states, and some countries, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, spend huge sums of money to support them.