Iraq captures IS finance chief
Iraqi forces have captured a deputy leader of Islamic State in a cross-border mission that was “one of the most difficult” ever executed, the prime minister said yesterday.
Mustafa al-kadhimi said that Sami Jasim al-jaburi – for whom the United States offered a $5million bounty in 2015 – was detained in a “complex external operation”, without providing further details.
A senior Iraqi military source claimed that Jasim was detained in Turkey, Agence France-presse reported, though there was no confirmation or immediate reaction from Ankara.
Iraqi intelligence officials told the Associated Press that Jasim had been detained in an unidentified foreign country and transported to Iraq a few days ago. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak about the operation on the record.
As only the second senior IS leader to be taken alive, he may offer valuable information on the group’s operations, said Hassan Hassan, an expert on the group. Jasim is said to have served as IS’S de facto finance minister in 2014, when the group held swathes of territory and had extensive revenue-generating operations, including ransoming kidnapped foreigners, extorting local populations in Iraq and Syria, looting antiquities and smuggling fuel.
It was not clear when he was caught but Mr Kadhimi alluded to an impending announcement on Sunday as Iraq went to the polls in an election marred by historically low turnout.
The announcement was “probably timed for Kadhimi to stake his claim as remaining prime minister”, Sajad Jiyad, a Baghdad-based analyst for the Century Foundation think tank, said, noting that a trouble-free election day and the arrest of a senior Isis leader was likely to reflect well on him.