(BEIRUT) — The wife of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi has been arrested after crossing into Lebanon from Syria with fake documents, Lebanese security and military officials told ABC News.
The woman, whose identity has not been officially revealed, was taken into custody with a child.
Lebanon’s As-Safir newspaper, which first reported the arrest Tuesday, said that the wife has been detained for 10 days and questioned at Lebanon’s Ministry of Defense where “investigations are ongoing.” The newspaper said the arrest was made in conjunction with foreign intelligence services, describing it as “a valuable catch.” It’s not known how many wives Baghdadi has and there are conflicting reports as to the sex of the child.
Al Baghdadi has proclaimed himself the caliph, or ruler of all Muslims, whose group controls a vast area of northern Syria and western Iraq.
The arrest comes as Lebanon grapples with how to deal with the kidnappings of 26 Lebanese soldiers by ISIS and the Syrian al Qaeda-linked group Jabhat al-Nusra. The groups have repeatedly threatened to kill the hostages if militants being held in Lebanon’s Roumieh prison are not released.
On Monday, families of the soldiers — who have been staging a sit-in in downtown Beirut demanding government action — burned tires in response to the latest threat.
Reports that Baghdadi had been killed or wounded in a recent U.S. airstrike were refuted by him in an audio recording last month in which he called on followers to unleash “volcanoes of jihad.”
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Al-Furqan Media/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images via ABC News)
