ISIS leaders CAPTURED: Five ‘most wanted’ commanders taken prisoner in Iraq
ISLAMIC State’s (ISIS) five “most wanted” commanders have been captured, President Donald Trump has said.
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The high-ranking jihadist leaders were taken prisoner in a joint US-Iraqi operation as they attempted to cross into Iraq from Syria.
Intelligence officers had tracked them for three months as they made their way through Turkey and Syria, the New York Times reported.
The group has been shown on Iraqi TV dressed in yellow prison uniforms.
Their pictures appeared next to images taken from ISIS propaganda. In one image too gruesome to show, one of the captured commanders can be seen grinning and posing next to a row of severed heads.
The ISIS leaders are said to have featured in a series of sick execution videos, filmed when the extremist group controlled large swathes of Iraq.
In a tweet this afternoon, the US leader said: “Five Most Wanted leaders of ISIS just captured!”
Iraqi officials have described the ISIS commanders as “some of the most wanted” leaders of the terrorist group.
They were named as Saddam al-Jammel, Mohammed al-Qadeer, Ismail al-Eithawi, Omar al-Karbouli and Essam al-Zawbai.
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The list did not include ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
He thought to be hiding in eastern Syria and surrounded by only a small group of trusted followers, an Iraqi intelligence official said.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: ”His movements are discreet and he never travels in a convoy.”
A reward of $25 million is on offer from the United States for any information which could lead to his arrest.