Erdogan says Turkey captured Baghdadi's sister and wife in Syria - UPDATE

Sputnik
Wed, 06 Nov 2019 20:57 UTC

© Reuters / Alaa al-Marjani

Iraqi youth watch the news of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi death, in Najaf, Iraq October 27, 2019

An unnamed Turkish official said the woman is being interrogated along with her husband, but did not provide further details.

A senior Turkish official claimed Turkey captured the older sister of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, previously killed during a US raid in Syria's Idlib province, AP reported Monday.

The official called the arrest an "intelligence gold mine," the report says.

According to the report, the 65-year old woman, named Rasmiya Awad, was captured in a raid conducted Monday. Awad was living in a trailer near the town of Azaz, north of Aleppo, a region under Turkish control since 2016 Operation Euphrates Shield.

"This kind of thing is an intelligence gold mine. What she knows about [Daesh] can significantly expand our understanding of the group and help us catch more bad guys," the official said, according to AP.

The Turkish official said Awad was taken into custody along with her husband, daughter-in-law and five children. The adults are reportedly being interrogated. Rasmiya is suspected to be affiliated with the Daesh terror group, the official said, without providing further detail.

© REUTERS / HANDOUT

Rasmiya Awad, believed to be the sister of slain Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose real name was Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri (according to The Daily Telegraph), was an Iraqi from the town of Samarra, north of Baghdad. He was reported dead as a result of a US special operations raid last month. His death was later confirmed by the terror group.

Comment: Communications Director at the Turkish Presidency Fahrettin Altun confirmed the news. "We have been leading in the fight against terrorism in all its forms. Our strong counter-terrorism cooperation with like-minded partners can never be questioned", Altun stated.

Erdogan added that Baghdadi's wife was captured too:

"Baghdadi has committed suicide in a tunnel. We have caught his wife in Syria, but we have made no noise of it. I'm now announcing this for the first time. We have also caught his sister and her husband," Erdogan said in an address in Ankara.

A bit strange that what seems to be Baghdadi's entire family was hanging out in Turkish-controlled areas of Syria... But no, take the Turkish government's word for it: they're fighting the war on terror.

UPDATE 7 Nov 2019

According to Erdogan, Turkey detained at least 10 relatives of Baghdadi:

"Al-Baghdadi's close circle is paying a lot of attention to our country. We recently captured his sister's husband and their child in [Syria's] Azaz, and sent them to migration camps. Let's see what decision our Ministry of Justice will make. His wife has been in our hands for 1-1.5 years. It will be the same process. The number of [al-Baghdadi's relatives detained by Turkey] is already in the double digits", Erdogan told reporters.

He added that together with the wife of the killed Daesh leader, a child, whose kinship to al-Baghdadi was proved by DNA analysis, had been detained.

Later, he specified the exact number of al-Baghdadi' associates and relatives apprehended by the country's security forces.

"We now have 13 people from his inner circle", the Turkish president said.

As Moon of Alabama writes:

Eight and a half years ago when the war on Syria began, Turkey played the most important role. Weapons were smuggled from Libya through Turkey to be delivered to 'Syrian rebels'. Over the years tens of thousands of foreign Jihadis traveled through Turkey to join the various groups fighting against the Syrian government. After the Islamic State came into existence even more followed.

When the U.S. changed course and started to fight ISIS it urged Turkey to clamp down on the stream of fresh fighters. Turkey did so to some extent after several ISIS bombings killed dozens within Turkey. But recent events show that Turkey still does not see ISIS as an adversary. Nor do ISIS leaders fear Turkish authorities.

The rest of his article is worth reading. For example:

After being shamed over its willful negligence towards ISIS assets in areas it controls Turkey took some diversionary steps.

On November 1 it captured the Belgian Islamic State member Fatima Benmezian in Kilis, Turkey. Benmezian had escaped from a refugee camp in northeastern Syria a few weeks ago when it was bombed by Turkey.

On November 4 Turkish forces captured the sister of Baghdadi, Rasmiya Awad, alongside her husband and daughter-in-law. They were living in a container trailer near the town of Azaz in Aleppo province. Azaz is only a few kilometers south of Kilis and under Turkish control.

Today Turkey claimed that it had captured another wife of Baghdadi but it did not say where she was found.

None of those persons Turkey nabbed have any operational value. They are expendables.

But it is really remarkable that all these ISIS persons happened to live in Turkish controlled areas near Turkish border crossings. Are we to believe that they had chosen an area where no other ISIS members are around? It is quite more likely that there are many more ISIS members who are now living in those border areas of Syria which are more or less under Turkish control.