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Lebanon Is Said to Detain Wife and Son of ISIS Leader Lebanon Is Said to Detain Wife and Child of ISIS Leader
(about 2 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Lebanese authorities have detained a woman and child believed to be the wife and son of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the extremist group the Islamic State, near the border with Syria, two security officials said on Tuesday. BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Lebanese authorities have detained a woman and child whom they believed to be a wife and son of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the extremist group Islamic State, officials said on Tuesday.
The pair were arrested more than a week ago, the officials said. The two were arrested more than a week ago while trying to enter Lebanon from Syria, the officials said.
The officials did not provide the woman’s name or nationality or give the boy’s age. An army official said that the woman was still being questioned and that it remained unclear how much information she had on the operations of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Some of the officials provided a name for the woman, but did not give her nationality, nor the child’s age. They did not explain how they had determined that the two were related to Mr. Baghdadi, although one official hinted that a foreign intelligence service was involved.
“We still don’t know how valuable she is,” the army official said. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media. The Lebanese state news service remained silent on the matter.
Although the Islamic State has drawn international attention for seizing territory in Syria and Iraq and distributing brutal videos of its fighters beheading hostages, little is known about the private life of its leader. He declared himself to be caliph, or leader of the world’s Muslims, during a sermon in the Iraqi city of Mosul in July. Although the Islamic State has drawn international attention for seizing territory in Syria and Iraq and for distributing brutal videos of its fighters beheading hostages, little is known about its leader, whom the group has declared to be caliph, or leader of the world’s Muslims.
While many leaders of jihadist groups have several wives, the Islamic State has not stated Mr. Baghdadi’s marital status. Mr. Baghdadi has not appeared in public since July, when he delivered a sermon in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Since then, he has addressed his followers only through audio recordings or through spokesmen.
The Islamic State did not immediately respond to the reports, and some of its supporters took to social media to declare them false. The United States has offered up to $10 million for information on his whereabouts. But analysts and security officials who track the group differ on his ultimate importance, debating whether he is the organization’s operational commander or merely a figurehead.
Little is known for certain about Mr. Baghdadi’s personal life. Many leaders of jihadist groups have multiple wives, but the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, has not given any specifics about Mr. Baghdadi’s marital status. An official biography released this year said only that he is married.
Lebanese officials themselves appeared to be in some doubt about the identities of the woman and child.
One army official reached by phone said the woman was still being questioned and that the army was unsure how much information she possessed about ISIS’s operations. “We still don’t know how valuable she is,” the army official said.
Two officials gave the woman’s name as Saja Hamid al-Dulaimi, but one added that her relationship to Mr. Baghdadi had not been confirmed.
“The investigation is still focusing on whether Dulaimi is really Baghdadi’s wife,” the official said, adding that there were strong indications that she was.
Lebanese news media reported that a woman of the same name was detained earlier this year by the Syrian authorities, and then released as part of a prisoner swap that secured the release of a group of Syrian nuns held hostage by antigovernment insurgents.
The Reuters news agency reported that the child detained in Lebanon with Ms. Dulaimi was a daughter, not a son.
The Islamic State does not control territory in Lebanon the way it does in Syria and Iraq, but support for the group has been growing in some predominately Sunni Muslim areas of Lebanon, like the city of Tripoli in the north. The Islamic State is one of the factions that is currently holding a group of Lebanese soldiers and policemen who were captured this year near the Syrian border.
Hassan Abu Hanieh, a Jordanian expert on Islamist groups, said that the mystery surrounding Mr. Baghdadi made him different from other jihadist leaders.
In contrast, Osama bin Laden was married and divorced a number of times, and the identities of his wives and many of his children are known. And Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who headed Al Qaeda in Iraq, the organization that evolved into the Islamic State, is known to have had more than four wives, including a Saudi, an Iraqi and a Jordanian, though not all at the same time, Mr. Abu Hanieh said.
“We can be sure that Baghdadi is married, but to whom, we just don’t know,” he said, adding that keeping secrets was part of the Islamic State’s strategy.
“ISIS is not like Al Qaeda,” Mr. Abu Hanieh said. “They like to work on these ambiguities to keep people confused.”
As reports of the arrests of the woman and child surfaced on Tuesday, Islamic State supporters took to social media to declare them false. The group’s opponents, on the other hand, joked that perhaps Mr. Baghdadi’s wife was on her way to party at Lebanon’s famous casino or to attend the funeral of the Lebanese singer Sabah, who died last week. Either activity would surely draw a death sentence from the Islamic State.