Turkey Says Forces Captured Wife, Sister Of Slain IS Leader Baghdadi
Turkey Says Forces Captured Wife, Sister Of Slain IS Leader Baghdadi
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkish forces in Syria have captured one of the wives and other family members of slain Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Erdogan, in a speech on November 6 in Ankara, did not provide details or disclose the name of the woman taken into custody.
Baghdadi was known to have four wives — the maximum he can have at one time under Islamic law, according to an aide to the IS leader.
Baghdadi died on October 26 during a U.S. Special Forces raid in Syria’s northwestern Idlib Province.
“The United States said Baghdadi killed himself in a tunnel. They started a communication campaign about this,” Erdogan said.
“But I am announcing it here for the first time: We captured his wife and didn’t make a fuss like them. Similarly, we also captured his sister and brother-in-law in Syria,” he added.
Reuters and AP on November 5 quoted a senior Turkish official as saying Baghdadi’s older sister, Rasmiya Awad, 65, was found during a raid on November 4 near the Turkish-controlled town of Azaz, in Syria’s Aleppo Province.
It was not immediately clear if Erdogan was referring to Awad in his latest comments.
Turkish forces have taken control of a stretch of territory near its border with Syria after launching a military offensive to force U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters out of the area.
Ankara’s move came after President Donald Trump in September announced a withdrawal of U.S. troops from along the border area to allow Turkish forces to set up the zone free of the Kurdish militias.
Turkey has captured the older sister of slain Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in northwestern Syria, Turkish officials say.
Reuters and AP quoted a senior official as saying that Rasmiya Awad, 65, was found during a raid on November 4 near the Turkish-controlled town of Azaz, in Aleppo Province.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Awad was found in a trailer where she was living with her husband, daughter-in-law, and five children.
Awad could be an intelligence “gold mine,” the official said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s communications director, Fahrettin Altun, hailed the arrest as “another example of the success of our counterterrorism operations.”
Little is known about Baghdadi’s sister.
Following Baghdadi’s death last month, a person named Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi was named the new leader of the extremist group on October 31.
Baghdadi, who had led the IS group since 2014, died on October 26 during a U.S. Special Forces raid in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib.
It was not immediately clear who Qurayshi was, since IS commonly identifies its leaders with aliases tied to their tribal affiliation and lineage. Those names often change.
Despite losing control over much of Syria and Iraq from a U.S.-led military operation over the past several years, IS still remains a security threat.