Army's Hefty Catch to End Arsal Captives Ordeal as Controversy Rises over Identity of Baghdadi's Wife
The alleged wife of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is procrastinating during investigations and refusing to admit that she has any relation with the Islamic State chief as media reports said that the arrest of the wife of a prominent Nusra Front official could end the abduction of Lebanese servicemen.
According to As Safir newspaper published on Wednesday, investigations are ongoing with Iraqi national Saja Hamid al-Dulaimi, who was detained 10 days ago at an army checkpoint at al-Madfoun Bridge in the North after the military obtained information that she intends to move to Beirut.
Dulaimi, who was arrested along with her 4-year-old daughter and two younger boys, and the driver of the car were both holding fake identification papers.
The detainee said that her father wedded her to Ibrahim al-Samerai, who is believed to be the real name of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but Dulaimi didn't admit to marrying him.
Investigators said that Dulaimi is highly trained and knows how to deal with such circumstances.
The daily said that the DNA tests will be in cooperation with the Iraqi intelligence and other foreign agencies.
Dulaimi hails from a family that is linked to terrorism as her father was a prominent leader at Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, while her sister, Douaa, is a suicide bomber who failed to detonate herself in Iraq's Irbil, and her brother Abu Ayyoub al-Iraqi is an al-Nusra Front commander.
It is unclear how many wives the IS leader has.
However, doubts were raised about whether the woman arrested is Baghdadi's wife and if she is indeed Saja al-Dulaimi, who has been exchanged for 13 Christian nuns and three helpers kidnapped in the Syrian town of Maalula in December by the al-Nusra Front, the bitter enemy of IS, making it unlikely she would be Baghdadi's wife.
Meanwhile, An Nahar newspaper said that the arrest of the wife of al-Nusra Front official Anas Sharkas, aka Abu Ali al-Shishani, was the result of intense investigations and the wire-tapping of cellular phones.
The detainee, who was arrested two-months after her surveillance, reportedly communicates with her husband and other gunmen through Skype.
She was apprehended along with her brother Rakan in the Zgharta area of Hilan in northern Lebanon at a public school hosting Syrian refugees.
The newspaper said that the woman chose the town of Hilan where her friends and husband's acquaintances reside.
Al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State group are negotiating with the Lebanese state the release of captive soldiers and policemen, who were taken hostage after the militants withdrew from the northeastern border town of Arsal in August.
The arrest of the two women are seen as a pressure card to safely release the captive men.
H.K.
G.K.
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