International
Turkey captures elder sister of slain ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Turkish security forces have captured the elder sister of slain Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, following a raid in north-western Syria.
A senior Turkish official said that the 65-year-old woman identified as Rasmiya Awad was arrested alongside her husband, daughter-in-law and five children in a trailer container she was living in near the town of Azaz in Aleppo province of Syria.
The adults are being interrogated, he said, speaking to news agencies on condition of anonymity, calling the arrest an intelligence “gold mine”.
“This kind of thing is an intelligence gold mine. What she knows about (ISIL) can significantly expand our understanding of the group and help us catch more bad guys,” the official said.
READ ALSO: Professor, footballer; 9 other facts you may not know about dead ISIS leader al-Baghdadi
The arrest comes days after the United States military published the first footage of the raid in northern Syria that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Grainy video showed troops firing at militants on the ground as they flew towards the compound where al-Baghdadi was hiding before they moved in on the ground, the BBC reports.
Baghdadi fled into a tunnel and killed himself by detonating a suicide vest.
After the raid the compound was destroyed with munitions.
The head of US Central Command, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, said the destroyed buildings were left looking like “a parking lot with large potholes.”
Gen. McKenzie said two children had died with Baghdadi in the tunnel – not three as previously reported.
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