Rasmiya Awad, Sister Of Slained ISIS Leader Bakr Al-Baghdadi Nabbed

Turkey special forces have captured the older sister of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State who blasted himself after an American military raid at his hide outs in northwestern Syria last week.

Senior Turkish official confirmed to AFP that Rasmiya Awad, 65, was nabbed and detained in a Turkish-controlled region of northern Syria, Azaz. She was arrested alongside her husband and family members.

“The capture of such a close relative and one said to be affiliated with the Islamic State movement will yield a trove of intelligence information,” the Turkish official told AFP.

In the years since he declared a caliphate in 2014, Mr. al-Baghdadi had become intensely security conscious. He trusted only his family and a close circle of associates, according to women who were held by him as sex slaves, as well as several senior aides interviewed after their capture in prison in Iraq.

Abu Ali al-Basri, Iraq’s director general of intelligence, also suggested in an interview last year that Mr. al-Baghdadi was leaning heavily on direct family members, including his brothers and the husbands of his sisters.

According to Intelligence information, the slained ISIS chief had five brothers and several sisters. The family were close to him something that has made it remain unclear how many are still alive.

“Gold mine’ might be overstating the issue, but depending on how much time she spent around Baghdadi, it could be significant. Not only can she help piece together important facts about his life and history, but she could also have an insider’s knowledge of how ISIS was structured or some insight into the group’s decision-making.” Colin P. Clarke, a senior fellow at the Soufan Center, a research organization in New York, cautioned against expecting to learn too much from Ms. Awad’s capture.