Sister of slain Islamic State leader Baghdadi captured by Turkey in Syria raid

Turkey captured the elder sister of the slain leader of the Islamic State group in northwestern Syria on Monday, according to a senior Turkish official, who called the arrest an intelligence "gold mine."

Rasmiya Awad, 65, was detained in a raid near Azaz, the official said, referring to a Turkish-controlled Syrian town near the border.

When captured, she was also accompanied by five children.

"We hope to gather a trove of intelligence from Baghdadi’s sister on the inner workings of ISIS," the official told AP.

Little independent information is available on Baghdadi’s sister.

Her capture is yet to be immediately verified. 

Awad was reportedly cornered in the swoop on a trailer container she was living in with her family in Aleppo province.

The official said the sister was with her husband, daughter-in-law and five children.

The adults are being interrogated, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government protocol.

"This kind of thing is an intelligence gold mine. What she knows about (IS) can significantly expand our understanding of the group and help us catch more bad guys."

Isil Rise and fall of a caliphate

Baghdadi killed himself last month when cornered in a tunnel during a raid by U.S. special forces in northwestern Syria. Islamic State, in an audio tape posted online on Thursday, confirmed that its leader had died and vowed revenge against the United States.

The raid was a major blow to the group, which has lost territories it held in Syria and Iraq in a series of military defeats by the U.S-led coalition and Syrian and Iraqi allies.

His aide, a Saudi, was killed hours after the raid, also in northwestern Syria, in a U.S. strike

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s communications director said the woman’s capture was evidence of Turkey’s determination to fight against Islamic State.

"The arrest of al-Baghdadi’s sister is yet another example of the success of our counter-terrorism operations," Fahrettin Altun wrote on Twitter early on Tuesday.

"Much dark propaganda against Turkey has been circulating to raise doubts about our resolve against Daesh," he wrote, using another name for Islamic State.

"Our strong counter-terrorism cooperation with like-minded partners can never be questioned."

Many IS members have escaped through smuggling routes to northwestern Syria in the final days of battle ahead of the group’s territorial defeat earlier this year, while others have melted into the desert in Syria or Iraq.

Baghdadi had risen from obscurity to lead the ultra-hardline group and declare himself "caliph" of all Muslims, holding sway over huge areas of Iraq and Syria from 2014-2017 before Islamic State’s control was wrested away by U.S.-led coalition forces including Iraqis and Syrian Kurds.

Islamic State said a successor to Baghdadi identified as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi had been appointed.

A senior U.S. official last week said Washington was looking at the new leader to determine where he came from.

World leaders welcomed his death, but they and security experts warned that the group, which carried out atrocities against religious minorities and horrified most Muslims, remained a security threat in Syria and beyond.