Iraq announces arrest of IS leader wanted by Washington
In Iraq and Syria, ISIS would keep a total of 10,000 active fighters, according to a UN report.
ZUMA PRESS / MAXPPP
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The Iraqi intelligence services captured during an operation outside Iraq a leader of the Islamic State (IS) group, Sami Jasim al-Jaburi, wanted by the United States and presented as a financial official of the jihadist organization, was announced this Monday, October 11 from an official source.
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Washington offers a reward of five million dollars for any information concerning this official having played "
an essential role in the management of the finances
" of the EI, according to an anti-terrorism program of the United States Department of State.
Presented as a former deputy to former
ISIS
chief
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
, Sami Jasim al-Jaburi was captured in an intelligence operation "
outside
Iraqi
borders
", the Prime Minister tweeted. Iraqi Minister Mustafa al-Kazimi.
While our ISF heroes focused on securing the elections, their INIS colleagues were conducting a complex external operation to capture Sami Jasim, who was in charge of Daesh finance, and a deputy of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
Long live Iraq, and our brave heroes.
- Mustafa Al-Kadhimi مصطفى الكاظمي (@MAKadhimi) October 11, 2021
The Prime Minister does not specify where the jihadist leader was captured, but assures that the operation coincided with the early legislative elections on Sunday, when "
the heroes of the security forces were protecting the elections
".
The "
finance minister
" of the IE?
Sami Jasim al-Jaburi is "
considered one of the most sought after at the international level, and he is close to the current head of the
jihadist
organization
", Abu Ibrahim al-Hachemi al-Qourachi, according to a statement from the forces of security. The press release presents him as "
the supervisor of the financial and economic files of the terrorist organization EI
". In September 2015, the US Treasury put him on its list of "terrorists" targeted by sanctions.
“
While he was an ISIS deputy in southern Mosul (northern Iraq) in 2014, he was said to have served as ISIS finance minister, overseeing the group's income from illicit sales of oil, gas, antiques,
”according to the State Department's“
Rewards for Justice
”program.
Yet "
10
000 active fighters
," according to the UN
After a meteoric rise in power in 2014 in Iraq and neighboring Syria and the conquest of vast territories, IS has seen its "caliphate" falter under the impact of successive offensives in these two countries.
Iraq declared victory against the jihadists at the end of 2017 and ISIS was defeated in Syria in 2019.
Today ISIS "
maintains a largely clandestine presence in Iraq and Syria and leads a sustained insurgency on both sides of the border between the two countries
", according to a UN report published in early 2021. In these two countries, the jihadist organization would retain "
in all
10,000 active combatants
", according to this report.
Tracked down, the "caliph"
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
died in an American operation in October 2019 in Syria.
But IS remains a threat, as its fighters have gone underground and continue to carry out attacks in Iraq and Syria.
The last major
terrorist attack claimed by ISIS
in Iraq last July targeted a market in the Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad, which killed around 30 people.
(With
AFP
)
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Iraq
EI
United States
Terrorism