Turkey captures sister of dead IS leader in Syria

Turkey said, it has captured the sister of dead Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Monday in the northern Syrian town of Azaz.

According to a report by a senior Turkish official to Reuters, Rasmiya Awad, 65, was detained in a raid near Azaz, a Turkish-controlled Syrian town near the border. 

She was accompanied by five children, her husband and daughter-in-law who are been interrogated.

We hope to gather a trove of intelligence from Baghdadi’s sister on the inner workings of ISIS, the official said.

Baghdadi killed himself last month when cornered in a tunnel during a raid by U.S. special forces in northwestern Syria. Islamic State, in an audio tape posted online on Thursday, confirmed that its leader had died and vowed revenge against the United States.

Baghdadi had risen from obscurity to lead the ultra-hardline group and declare himself “caliph” of all Muslims, holding sway over huge areas of Iraq and Syria from 2014-2017 before Islamic State’s control was wrested away by U.S.-led coalition forces including Iraqis and Syrian Kurds. 

The group, also known as ISIS, said a successor to Baghdadi identified as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi had been appointed. A senior U.S. official last week said Washington was looking at the new leader to determine where he came from.