Iraqi Intelligence Arrests ISIS Treasurer And Deputy Of The Late Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi

Illustration of an arrest by Iraqi security forces. (Wikimedia Commons/SPC Jared Forsyth)

JAKARTA - Iraq has captured Sami Jassem, a high-ranking ISIS official in charge of finance, and deputy to the group's late leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said on Twitter Monday.

"While our heroes (Iraqi security forces) were focused on securing the election, their comrades (Iraq's national intelligence service) carried out a complex external operation to capture Sami Jassem," he said, without giving further details on the operation, citing the Daily Sabah of October 11.

Al-Kadhimi described it as one of the most difficult cross-border intelligence operations ever carried out by Iraqi forces. Iraqi intelligence officials told The Associated Press that Jassem was detained in an identified foreign country and transported to Iraq a few days ago. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the operation.

Jassem worked with Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, before he was killed by the Americans in Iraq in 2016. He took various security positions in Iraq, and moved to Syria in 2015 to become al-Baghdadi's deputy.

In 2015, the United States Department of the Treasury assessed Jassem for providing financial support or other services to ISIS. It said he oversees Daesh (ISIS) finances, oil and gas, antiquities to mineral resources operations. Al-Baghdadi was killed in an attack by US special forces in northwestern Syria in 2019.

Earlier in May, al-Baghdadi's right-hand man, an Afghan national with the code name 'Basim' was arrested in Istanbul in a joint operation by Turkish intelligence and police. The Afghan national was detained in the Ataşehir district on the Asian side of the city, according to an Istanbul police statement.

Turkey's intelligence agency said at the time that the suspect had been involved in helping hide al-Baghdadi in Syria's Idlib province after the fall of the terrorist group in 2019.

Basim is suspected of organizing training for ISIS while in Syria and Iraq, as well as serving on a decision-making council. He arrived in Turkey using a fake passport and identity card.