ISTANBUL: A close aide of killed Daesh group leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has been caught in Istanbul, police said Sunday.
The Afghan national, only identified by the codename Basim, was detained in the Atasehir district on the city’s Asian side on Wednesday, according to an Istanbul police statement.
News reports of the joint operation with Turkey’s intelligence agency said the suspect had been involved in helping hide Al-Baghdadi in Syria’s Idlib province after the fall of the group in 2019.
Al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid on his Syrian hideout by US special forces in October 2019.
Turkish media published a photograph of a balding, bearded man in a light coat following the arrest and an earlier image, purportedly of the same person, showing a long-haired, heavily bearded man in military fatigues wielding a curved sword.
The Demiroren news agency said Basim was suspected of organizing training for Daesh while in Syria and Iraq, as well as serving on its decision-making council.
He arrived in Turkey with a false passport and identity card, the agency said.
Turkey regularly detains Daesh suspects, many allegedly planning attacks in the country.
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Turkish police say top Daesh figure captured
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Turkish police say top Daesh figure captured
Iraq’s parliament delays presidential vote
- Iraq’s two main Kurdish parties, who ususally put forward a candidate for president, asked to postpone the vote
- Once elected, the president will then have 15 days to appoint a prime minister
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s parliament postponed the election of the country’s president on Tuesday to allow Kurdish rivals time to agree on a candidate.
The parliament delayed the session, the official INA press agency reported, without saying whether a new date had been agreed.
The agency reported earlier that speaker Haibat Al-Halbussi received requests from Iraq’s two main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), to postpone the vote to “allow both parties more time” to reach a deal.
By convention, a Shiite Muslim holds the powerful post of prime minister, the parliament speaker is a Sunni and the largely ceremonial presidency goes to a Kurd.
Under a tacit agreement between the two main Kurdish parties, a PUK member holds the Iraqi presidency, while the president and regional premier of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region is selected from the KDP.
But this time the KDP named its own candidate for Iraq’s presidency: Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.
Once elected, the president will then have 15 days to appoint a prime minister, expected to be former premier Nouri Al-Maliki.
On Saturday, the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Shiite parties with varying ties to Iran that holds a parliamentary majority, endorsed Maliki.
But his nomination appeared to stoke concern in Washington.
The 75-year-old shrewd politician is Iraq’s only two-term premier (2006-2014) since the 2003 US invasion.
Seen as close to Iran, Al-Maliki left power in 2014 following heated pressure from Washington.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on Sunday against a pro-Iranian government in Iraq.
An Iraqi source close to the Coordination Framework told AFP that Washington had conveyed that it “holds a negative view of previous governments led by former prime minister Maliki.”
In a letter, US representatives said that while the selection of the prime minister is an Iraqi decision, “the United States will make its own sovereign decisions regarding the next government in line with American interests.”
Another Iraqi source confirmed the letter, adding that the Shiite alliance had still moved forward with its choice, confident that Al-Maliki could allay Washington’s concerns.
Iraq has long been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, with successive governments negotiating a delicate balance between the two foes.
Iraq’s new premier will be expected to address Washington’s longstanding demand that Baghdad disarm Tehran-backed factions, many of which are designated terrorist groups by the US.
The parliament delayed the session, the official INA press agency reported, without saying whether a new date had been agreed.
The agency reported earlier that speaker Haibat Al-Halbussi received requests from Iraq’s two main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), to postpone the vote to “allow both parties more time” to reach a deal.
By convention, a Shiite Muslim holds the powerful post of prime minister, the parliament speaker is a Sunni and the largely ceremonial presidency goes to a Kurd.
Under a tacit agreement between the two main Kurdish parties, a PUK member holds the Iraqi presidency, while the president and regional premier of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region is selected from the KDP.
But this time the KDP named its own candidate for Iraq’s presidency: Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.
Once elected, the president will then have 15 days to appoint a prime minister, expected to be former premier Nouri Al-Maliki.
On Saturday, the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Shiite parties with varying ties to Iran that holds a parliamentary majority, endorsed Maliki.
But his nomination appeared to stoke concern in Washington.
The 75-year-old shrewd politician is Iraq’s only two-term premier (2006-2014) since the 2003 US invasion.
Seen as close to Iran, Al-Maliki left power in 2014 following heated pressure from Washington.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on Sunday against a pro-Iranian government in Iraq.
An Iraqi source close to the Coordination Framework told AFP that Washington had conveyed that it “holds a negative view of previous governments led by former prime minister Maliki.”
In a letter, US representatives said that while the selection of the prime minister is an Iraqi decision, “the United States will make its own sovereign decisions regarding the next government in line with American interests.”
Another Iraqi source confirmed the letter, adding that the Shiite alliance had still moved forward with its choice, confident that Al-Maliki could allay Washington’s concerns.
Iraq has long been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, with successive governments negotiating a delicate balance between the two foes.
Iraq’s new premier will be expected to address Washington’s longstanding demand that Baghdad disarm Tehran-backed factions, many of which are designated terrorist groups by the US.
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