“We were observing the movements of al-Baghdadi in indirect ways through his family,” al Allaq said in a rare interview. “By doing that, it gives us some sort of secrecy and we gave al-Baghdadi an impression that we were not monitoring his movements,” Al-Zubaaei.
Al-Zubaaei had helped al-Baghdadi avoid the authorities when he traveled in what the Iraqi military called Operation Falcon Eye. After he himself was captured by the Iraqis on the outskirts of Baghdad in May 2019, he provided crucial information.
He led security forces to a tunnel in the desert near Qaim in western Iraq close to the Syrian border, where they discovered personal belongings of al-Baghdadi, as well as maps and handwritten notes of locations.
Al-Zubaaei also suggested that the ISIS chief could be in Idlib, Syria, the agents said.
Iraqi security forces later were able to infiltrate an al-Baghdadi smuggling network in Syria, which helped to track him, they said.
Iraq shared the information with US-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria as part of their regular briefings and the CIA and other US units then took the lead,working with the mainly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, to find him.
Al-Baghdadi died along with two children he had taken with him in a US raid in October on the outskirts of Barisha, a village near Idlib.
News that al-Baghdadi was in Idlib was refuted in certain quarters.
Idlib is under the control of Hayat Tahrir a Sham, a rebel group with ties to al Qaeda. While the militant jihadist groups have plenty in common ideologically, for years, ISIS and al Qaeda and its affiliates have been locked in bitter fighting in Syria. It would seem an unlikely hiding place for Baghdadi, particularly in a village just 3 miles from the Turkish border.
A map from Iraqi intelligence shows al-Baghdadi’s travel northwards along the Euphrates River in Syria as well as his brother who helped him choose hideouts.
A key part was played in this time by the father of al-Baghdadi’s third wife, who became known as the “Ghost of the Desert” for his ability to move ISIS groups undetected between Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.
In February 2018, Iraq says it scored another breakthrough with the arrest of Mohammed al-Dulaimi, known as Abu Ibrahim. He was the son of a former deputy of al-Baghdadi who was one of his key couriers of ISIS’s coded messages at the time. This arrest generated more information about al-Baghdadi’s guide, al-Zubaaei, and was a significant step leading to his capture, al Allaq said.
Al-Baghdadi left his hideout in Deir Ezzor after al-Dulaimi’s arrest, officials said. Iraq shared its information with US-led coalition forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces in a renewed push to track the ISIS chief down.
Iraq’s intelligence chiefs said al-Baghdadi then kept on the move in the Syrian desert between Palmyra and Homs until at least March of this year, before he headed north to where he was cornered last month and killed himself.
Like Our Story ? Donate to Support Us, Click Here
You want to share a story with us? Do you want to advertise with us? Do you need publicity/live coverage for product, service, or event? Contact us on WhatsApp +16477721660 or email Adebaconnector@gmail.com
