Communications Director at the Turkish Presidency Fahrettin Altun has confirmed that the country's forces have captured the sister of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the former leader of Daesh* who is now believed to be dead.
Altun used the announcement to scold those who question Turkey's resolve in fighting Daesh*, calling it "dark propaganda".
"We have been leading in the fight against terrorism in all its forms. Our strong counter-terrorism cooperation with like-minded partners can never be questioned", Fahrettin Altun stated.
Previously, the capture of 65-year-old Rasmiya Awad, the older sister of the notorious former Daesh* leader, was reported by the AP, citing an anonymous Turkish official. According to the source, Awad was detained along with her husband, daughter-in-law, and five children in the Syrian town of Azaz, north of Aleppo.
The sister and her husband are reportedly being interrogated by Turkish forces, with the source calling Rasmiya Awad an "intelligence gold mine". Awad is suspected of being affiliated with the terrorist organisation and thus capable of providing information about its structure and members.
"What she knows about [Daesh*] can significantly expand our understanding of the group and help us catch more bad guys", the official said, according to AP.
Death of the Daesh* Leader
On 27 October, US President Donald Trump announced that American forces had raided al-Baghdadi's hideout in Syria's Idlib province and that the terrorist number one killed himself using a suicide vest after being trapped in a dead-end tunnel. His body was mutilated by the blast, but POTUS said he had been identified by his DNA.
The remains of the former Daesh* leader were buried at sea and the hideout destroyed in an airstrike. The terrorist organisation confirmed the death of its leader several days later. There have previously been multiple claims that al-Baghdadi had been killed, but each time the reports turned out to be false.
Syrian Democratic Forces General Mazloum Abdi earlier claimed that the Kurds had a spy in al-Baghdadi's inner circle who revealed the terrorist's location to the SDF. The latter claimed that it had passed the information on to the US, which later allegedly used it to assassinate the Daesh* leader.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia