Captured ISIS commanders were lured to Iraq by fake app messages

by WorldTribune Staff, May 11, 2018

Four of the “Most Wanted” Islamic State (ISIS) leaders were captured after being lured to Iraq from Syria by fake messages on the Telegram app.

Iraqi state television broadcast images of four of the men arrested in the operation.

U.S. President Donald Trump on May 10 tweeted about the capture of the terrorists, which included two of the highest-ranking ISIS commanders ever to be taken alive

In February, Ismail al-Eithawi, a direct aide to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was captured by Turkish intelligence and handed over to Iraqi authorities.

Iraqi officials used al-Ethawi’s mobile phone to send instructions via the Telegram app for the four other leaders to come to Iraq, where they were seized. The operation was carried out in cooperation with U.S. forces.

Eithawi, who was responsible for fund transfers to ISIS’s bank accounts in different countries, also served as the terror group’s governor in Syria’s eastern Euphrates region and as a minister in charge of the group’s so-called education department.

The second most senior member of the terror group to be captured is Saddam al-Jamal, a Syrian who, as head of ISIS’s branch in Deir Ezzor, was accused of taking part in a 2014 massacre which killed 700 members of a tribe that opposed ISIS. Al-Jamal is said to have ordered the execution of children, sometimes in front of their parents.

Three ISIS field commanders were also captured: Syrian Mohamed al-Qadeer and two Iraqis, Omar al-Karbouli and Essam al-Zawbai, Iraqi officials said.

What remains of the ISIS “caliphate” last month restated their loyalty to Baghdadi in what is believed to be their first public pledge of allegiance to him since the terror group lost most of its areas of control in Syria and Iraq.

Baghdadi is now believed to be hiding in the Iraq-Syria border region.


Subscribe to Geostrategy-Direct __________ Support Free Press Foundation

You must be logged in to post a comment Login