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Lebanon's Claimed Detention of al Baghdadi's Wife and Child

[Video removed from You Tube] ...This is a news video from Lebanon( with English subtitles) on the detention of Saja al-Dulami, who may or may not be an ex-wife of ISIS leader al Baghdadi. There is still a lot of conflicting information as to whether she was ever married to al Baghdadi, and whether she was with her son or her daughter. Al-Dulami's family has ties to both ISIS and al Nusrah.

ISIS supporters on Twitter deny she is al Baghdadi's wife, and say that the Lebanese army knows this but released the information as part of a propaganda campaign. [More...]

Yesterday, Lebanon officials said they detained a wife of ISIS leader al Baghadi about ten days ago when she attempted to cross the border with a fake passport. It also reported one of her children was with her, and DNA tests confirmed the child is al Baghdadi's. (Today there are reports that tests are still underway with DNA obtained while al Baghdadi was at Camp Bucca.) As of yesterday, Lebanese news reports said she was still being questioned.

In March, there was a prisoner exchange between Syria and al Nusrah Front in which a group of nuns were exchanged for an Iraqi woman and three children, two of whom were reportedly her sons. The woman, later identified as Saja al-Dulaimi, was said to be a wife of al Baghdadi. But that information came from a Syrian activist, and it may or may not be accurate.

Here is a video of the exchange. The woman whose face is obscured is allegedly Saja al-Dulami. At the end of the video, a masked militant from al Nusra is holding a young male, who at the time, was reported by some on Twitter to be al Baghdadi's son, but could be al-Dulami's son.

al-Dujami's first husband reportedly died in 2010, which would make it extremely unlikely she and Baghdadi have an 8 to 10 year old son or daughter. (Although CNN now reports the child is age 4.) Also, there are reports she is now married to an al Nusra fighter and has been living in Lebanon for several years.

I doubt she will turn out to be a wife of al-Baghdadi's or that she will provide useful information about ISIS.[Added: It turns out she is the former wife of Al-Baghdadi, having been married to him for 2 months. They have a 7 year old daughter.]

Also arrested in a separate incident, according to Lebanese news, is the wife of Chechen al Nusra leader abu Ali al Shishani (not ISIS military commander Omar al Shishani.)

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.

In short, the news is all over the place on this and there is zero reliable information as yet.

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  • Display: Sort:
    Do you think (none / 0) (#1)
    by CaptHowdy on Tue Dec 02, 2014 at 08:43:37 PM EST
    she can or will provide any useful information?

    I heard this on NPR this afternoon when it broke (none / 0) (#2)
    by Jack203 on Tue Dec 02, 2014 at 10:28:33 PM EST
    The NPR host seemed to think it was a major breakthrough in the "critical struggle" against ISIS.

    My initial reaction was "Who cares" and almost certainly not important in our current conflict with ISIS (which I hope we can get out of as soon as possible)

    The NPR host interviewed a New York Times expert on ISIS, who was much closer in my line of thinking, and talked down the excitement.

    Now Jeralyn uncovers that it's probably not even (one of) Baghadi's wife.  I wouldn't be surprised.