Turkish intelligence helped Iraq capture a senior Islamic State leader who had been hiding out in northwestern Syria, three security sources said on Tuesday, in an operation that points to closer cooperation against remnants of the jihadist group.
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Iraq announced on Monday that its security forces had captured Sami Jasim, an Iraqi national, in what it described as "a special operation outside the borders". It did not give details on when or where he was seized.
Jasim is one of the most senior Islamic State leaders to be taken alive. He was a deputy to Islamic State's founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, killed during a US raid in 2019 in Syria's northwest, and a close aide to its current leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, the Iraqi government said.
A senior regional security source and two Iraqi security sources told Reuters that Jasim had been in northwestern Syria and that Turkish intelligence had been key to his capture.
Officials in the Iraqi and Turkish governments declined to comment on the sources' accounts of Jasim's capture.
