Islamic State leader’s wife, son detained in Lebanon

PanARMENIAN.Net - Lebanese security forces have detained a wife and son of Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi near the border with Syria, the army said, according to BBC News.

The pair, whose names were not given, were picked up by military intelligence after entering Lebanon 10 days ago.

The al-Safir newspaper reported that Baghdadi's wife was being questioned at the Lebanese defense ministry.

In June, Baghdadi was named the leader of the "caliphate" created by IS in the parts of Syria and Iraq it controls. Last month, the group denied reports that he had been killed or injured in an air strike by U.S.-led forces near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. It released an audio recording purportedly of Baghdadi in which he said the caliphate was expanding and called for "volcanoes of jihad" to erupt.

Describing them as "a valuable catch", al-Safir said that, in coordination with foreign intelligence services, the IS leader's wife and son were detained at a border crossing near the town of Arsal while trying to enter Lebanon from Syria with forged papers.

They were currently being held for interrogation at the defense ministry's headquarters in al-Yarza, in the hills overlooking Beirut, it added.

A security source told the AFP that the woman was a Syrian citizen and that her son was eight or nine years old. "It is his second wife," the source added.

Very little is known about Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has not been seen in public since June. A profile published by IS supporters the following month said the Iraqi was married, but it is unclear how many wives he has. Under Islamic law he is allowed up to four.

The Associated Press reported that Baghdadi's first wife was believed to be Suja al-Dulaimi, an Iraqi citizen who was reportedly detained by the Syrian authorities before being released in a prisoner exchange with al-Nusra Front in March.

Lebanese security forces have arrested a number of jihadists suspected of carrying out attacks in the country with the aim of expanding the influence of Islamic State.

IS and another Syria-based jihadist group, the al-Nusra Front, are holding around 20 Lebanese army soldiers hostage. They are threatening to kill them unless militants are freed from Lebanese jails.