Turkey Detains 25 Relatives of Baghdadi

Date: 16 November 2019 - 22:21

News ID: ۷۲۷۷۵

ANKARA (Sputnik) – Turkish authorities have detained 25 relatives of the slain ringleader of the Daesh terrorist group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, general prosecutor's office of Turkey says.
"Al-Baghdadi’s relatives were detained in four provinces as part of an investigation into the Daesh’s activities. A total of 25 people were detained: 11 in the province of Kirsehir, five in Samsun, three in the Ordu and six in Sanliurfa. Four of the detainees were arrested by the court accused of participating in an armed terrorist organization", the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The report comes nearly two weeks after Turkish-backed militia in Syria announced they had caught Al-Baghdadi’s sister, Rasmiya Awad, and handed her over to Turkey. 21 members of the family, including children, were sent to repatriation centers where Turkish authorities prepare refugees to be returned to their country of origin.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on 27 October that al-Baghdadi had been killed in a U.S. operation in Syria's Idlib. Later that day, the Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said that Russia did not have reliable information that the U.S. military had actually killed al-Baghdadi.
Baghdadi reportedly blew himself up along with two children when he was cornered by the U.S. military in his hideout in northern Syria, according to U.S. officials.
The terror ringleader’s immediate likely successor, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, was killed in a U.S. airstrike a day later, according to U.S. officials.