BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities said Thursday they have managed for the first time to have a top leader of the Daesh group extradited from Turkey.
Ismail Alwan Salman Al-Ithawi, 55, was tracked to Turkey’s Sakarya region, detained and returned through cooperation between Turkish, Iraqi and US intelligence agencies, a senior official in the interior ministry’s Falcons unit hunting Daesh members told AFP.
The break came after his unit had “infiltrated the highest levels” of the extremist group, he said.
A native of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, Ithawi was the group’s “minister” in charge of religious edicts and headed a Daesh committee that decided on senior appointments, according to the official.
He had fled the group’s now-shattered “caliphate” in Syria and was living under his brother’s name in northern Turkey.
“We asked our ambassador in Ankara to intervene with the Turkish authorities by providing the arrest warrant issued by Iraqi courts and recent photos of Ismail,” the official said.
Daesh swept across Syria and northern Iraq in a lightning advance in 2014, unleashing a reign of terror across a vast swathe of territory that lasted some three years.
The group’s territory has now been wiped out in Iraq and reduced to a small foothold in Syria by a series of punishing assaults in both countries.
The focus has since switched to tracking down the group’s senior leadership and the thousands of foreign fighters who once flocked to its banner.
Senior Daesh leader extradited to Iraq from Turkey
Senior Daesh leader extradited to Iraq from Turkey
Israeli military says missiles launched from Iran toward Israel
- Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported several injuries from the Iranian strikes near Tel Aviv
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said Wednesday that it detected missiles heading toward the country from Iran and had activated air defenses, as it pressed a “wave” of strikes against Iran and Lebanon.
“A short while ago, the IDF identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat,” the military said on its official Telegram account.
AFP journalists heard air raid sirens sounding in Jerusalem and the sound of explosions in the distance.
A short time later, Israel’s military said it was permitted to leave shelters.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency services reported no immediate injuries following the missile fire, but said its teams were treating “a small number of people who were injured on their way to protected areas.”
Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 reported several injuries from the Iranian strikes near Tel Aviv.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they targeted a satellite communications center in Haifa, along with military bases in Israel, and US targets elsewhere in the Middle East including Iraqi Kurdistan and the US Fifth Fleet naval base in Bahrain.
“We will continue our sustained attacks with purpose and power, and in this war, we contemplate nothing but the enemy’s complete surrender,” the Guards said on their website Sepah News.
