Trump announces capture of five ‘most wanted’ ISIS terrorists who were lured from Syria to Iraq with fake Telegram app messages – including top aide to ‘caliphate’ leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
President Trump tweeted that five top ISIS leaders had been captured
Iraqi agents took one of them in February – Ismail al-Eithawi, a top lieutenant to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
They used Eithawi’s cell phone to reach four of his top commanders with the Telegram messaging app and lure them into a trap
The ISIS terror army was created in 2012 as an al-Qaeda offshoot, re-branded from the previous group known as ‘al-Qaeda in Iraq’
ISIS was the most aggressive and effective rebel force in Syria before the U.S. and other Western nations started pushing back with vigor
DAVID MARTOSKO, US POLITICAL EDITOR
DAILYMAIL.COM
10 May 2018
A jubilant President Donald Trump announced Thursday on Twitter that 5 of the ‘Most Wanted leaders of ISIS’ have been captured.
A security advisor to Iraq’s government said hours earlier that Iraqi agents were holding a top aide to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and used an app on his mobile phone to lure four commanders from the group into a trap.
Ismail al-Eithawi, who also uses the alias Abu Zaid al-Iraqi, was captured in February in Turkey by Turkish authorities and handed over to Iraqi agents, Iraqi security advisor Hisham al-Hashimi told Reuters.
Hashimi described Eithawi as a direct aide to Baghdadi, responsible for fund transfers to the group’s bank accounts in different countries.
Iraqi agents used the Telegram messaging app on Eithawi’s mobile phone to lure other Islamic State commanders to cross the border from Syria into Iraq, where they were captured. Those held include Saddam Jamal, a Syrian who served as the group’s governor of Syria’s eastern Euphrates region.
Hashimi described Eithawi and Jamal as the two most senior Islamic State figures ever to be captured alive. The capture of all five was announced on Iraqi state TV on Wednesday.
Hashimi said the operation was carried out in cooperation with U.S. forces, part of an American-led coalition fighting against Islamic State on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border.
Following Eithawi’s capture, Iraqi and American intelligence agents were able to uncover bank accounts used by the group and also secret communication codes he used, Hashimi said.
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