Officials Insist Detained Woman is Baghdadi's Wife as Iraq Denies Claims
Lebanese judicial and military sources insisted Wednesday that a woman detained in Lebanon is a wife of Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as Iraq denied the allegations.
“DNA tests have confirmed that the Iraqi woman detained in Lebanon, Saja al-Dulaimi, is a wife of al-Baghdadi,” Turkey's Anatolia news agency quoted a Lebanese judicial source as saying.
“The DNA results of the three children who were accompanying al-Dulaimi turned out to be compatible with al-Baghdadi's DNA samples that were sent by Iraq” to the Lebanese authorities, the source added.
The source also revealed that the children's DNA results matched those of al-Dulaimi.
The woman's arrest in Lebanon was only unveiled on Tuesday. Media reports said the army arrested her more than 10 days ago at a checkpoint on al-Madfoun Bridge in the North.
The driver of the car and her 4-year-old daughter and two younger boys were also arrested, the reports said.
Meanwhile, An Nahar newspaper reported Wednesday that Lebanese investigators have obtained several pieces of evidence that prove that al-Dulaimi is al-Baghdadi's divorcee.
“Her DNA results and those of her daughter Hajar matched al-Baghdadi's DNA samples that were provided by a Western source,” An Nahar added.
“There is also another material evidence that is being kept under wraps pending further investigations and it has to do with a document that was found in her possession,” the newspaper said.
The interrogation of the woman is being supervised by Lebanon's military prosecutor, according to The Associated Press.
A senior Lebanese military official insisted in remarks to the AP that the woman said she was al-Baghdadi's wife during her interrogation.
The official declined to provide more details about the investigation. He said authorities have also detained, separately, the wife of senior Nusra Front leader Anas Sharkas, who is also known as Abu Ali al-Shishani.
The official refused to give further details about the Syrian woman, beyond saying her first name is Alaa.
The Lebanese army has not issued a communique to confirm the arrests.
Earlier on Wednesday, an Iraqi official denied that al-Dulaimi is a wife of al-Baghdadi, noting that she is the sister of a terror suspect being held in Iraq.
Iraq's Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan told the AP that al-Dulaimi is an Iraqi national who traveled to Syria before arriving in Lebanon.
He identified her as the sister of Omar Abdul Hamid al-Dulaimi, who is being held in Iraq as a terror suspect.
He added that al-Baghdadi has two wives but neither is named Saja al-Dulaimi.
An Iraqi intelligence official identified al-Baghdadi's two wives as Asmaa Fawzi Mohammed al-Dulaimi and Israa Rajab al-Qaissi, stressing that he does not have a wife with the name Saja al-Dulaimi.
Al-Dulaimi was held by Syrian authorities and freed in a prisoner exchange with the Nusra Front, Syria's al-Qaida branch, earlier this year.
If the woman is indeed al-Baghdadi's wife, she could potentially serve as a bargaining chip with Syria-based militants holding some 27 Lebanese troops and policemen captured in a cross-border raid in August.
Lebanese authorities have been under intense pressure from the families of the captured men to negotiate their release.
Y.R./G.K.
Source: Associated Press, Naharnet
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