Turkey claims it captured slain IS leader Baghdadi's sister in Syria

International

oi-Mousumi Dash

Ankara, Nov 05: Turkey confirms that they have captured the slain Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's elder sister in northwestern Syria on Monday. A senior Turkish official called this arrest an intelligence "gold mine."

Turkey claims that the 65-year-old Baghdadi's sister is known as Rasmiya Awad is suspected of being affiliated with the extremist group. Hence, she along with her husband and daughter-in-law who were also detained, are being interrogated.

She was seized on Monday during a raid on a trailer container she was living in with her family near the Turkish-controlled northern Syrian town of Azaz. When captured, she was also accompanied by five children.

Azaz area is a part of the region administered by Turkey after it carried out a military incursion to chase away IS militants and Kurdish fighters starting 2016.

Baghdadi killed himself in October this year when cornered in a tunnel during a raid by US special forces in north-western Syria. The deadly terror outfit ISIS has confirmed in an audiotape posted online on Thursday that its leader had died and vowed revenge against the US.

The raid was a major blow to the Islamic State group, this operation succeeded to lost territories that held in Syria and Iraq. In a series of military defeats by the US-led coalition and Syrian and Iraqi allies.

The official said, "This kind of thing is an intelligence gold mine. What she knows about (IS) can significantly expand our understanding of the group and help us catch more bad guys,'' the official said.

ISIS still dangerous despite Baghdadi's death

Numbers of IS members have escaped through smuggling routes to northwestern Syria in the final days of the battle ahead of the group's territorial defeat earlier this year, while others have melted into the desert in Syria or Iraq.

After al-Baghdadi's death, the ISIS revealed the name of their new leader, a successor to Baghdadi- Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, appointed as new ISIS leader.