Turkey says it has captured slain IS leader's sister in Syria



ISTANBUL, Anindita Ramaswamy (dpa)- Turkey says it captured a sister of slain Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a raid in the Syrian town of Azaz, calling the detention an "intelligence gold mine."
A senior Turkish official told dpa on Tuesday that the 65-year-old sister, Rasmiya Awad, was caught in a raid on a container in Azaz, a town controlled by Turkish-backed rebels.
She "was accompanied by her husband, her daughter-in-law, and five children. The three adults are being interrogated at this time," the official said, adding that the questioning was being done in Azaz.




Her arrest was confirmed earlier by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's communications director, Fahrettin Altun.
"The arrest of al-Baghdadi's sister is yet another example of the success of our counterterrorism operations," Altun tweeted on Tuesday, without providing details.
"This kind of thing is an intelligence gold mine," the Turkish official said. "What she knows about ISIS can significantly expand our understanding of the group and help us catch more bad guys."
The Turkish military and its allied Syrian rebel groups took control of Azaz following Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016, Turkey's first incursion into northern Syria.
Azaz lies 14 kilometres from the Turkish border.
"What we learn will help Turkey to better protect itself and the rest of Europe from terrorists," the official added.
Al-Baghdadi - proclaimed the caliph, or leader, of Islamic State in 2014 - was killed during a US raid last month in the north-western Syrian province of Idlib.
Islamic State confirmed his death last week and asked followers to pledge allegiance to his successor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurashi.
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Tuesday, November 5th 2019
Anindita Ramaswamy (dpa)
           


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