Reports: Army Detains Wife of al-Baghdadi, Family of Nusra Official

The Army Intelligence has reportedly detained a wife of Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the family members of an al-Nusra Front official who has links to the August abduction of several Lebanese troops and policemen from the town of Arsal.

According to As Safir newspaper published on Tuesday, the Army Intelligence in cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies detained one of al-Baghdadi's wives at a border crossing.

She was reportedly using fake identification papers and accompanied by one of her sons.

The security agencies transported her to the defense ministry's headquarters in Yarze for further investigations.

"Military intelligence detained one of his wives, who was traveling with their son, near (Lebanese northeastern border town) Arsal 10 days ago," a security source told Agence France Presse.

A military source confirmed the arrest and said the woman was a Syrian national, and her son was around eight years old.

However, several TV networks reported Tuesday evening that the wife and her daughter were arrested at the army's al-Madfoun checkpoint in the northern district of Batroun “after she raised suspicions.”

The wife was identified as Iraqi national Saja Hamid al-Dulaimi. She was included in the swap deal of the Maaloula nuns.

Media reports said Dulaimi was residing in the northern Dinniyeh district and moving between Dinniyeh, Chtaura and Arsal.

It is unclear how many wives the IS leader has.

The Islamic State group released in November a defiant audio recording it said was of chief al-Baghdadi, after air strikes on jihadist leaders in Iraq sparked rumors he had been wounded or killed.

IS spearheaded a militant offensive in June that overran Iraq’s second city Mosul and then swept through much of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland, adding chunks of a second country to territory it already held in Syria.

It has carried out atrocities in both countries.

Separately, state-run National News Agency said the Army Intelligence “arrested the wife of al-Nusra Front official Anas Sharkas, aka Abu Ali al-Shishani, along with her brother Rakan in the Zgharta area of Hilan” in northern Lebanon.

MTV said Sharkas' father had been arrested several days ago in Lebanon as LBCI TV said the militant's name was mentioned in the confessions of detained extremist leader Imad Jomaa.

LBCI noted that Sharkas “has links to the case of the captive servicemen.”

Jomaa's early August arrest in Arsal sparked deadly clashes with the Lebanese army, during which 20 troops and 16 civilians were killed.

The militants also kidnapped 35 troops and policemen before they eventually released seven and executed three.

H.K./Y.R.