Turkey has captured a sister of the dead Islamic State militant group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a senior Turkish official said Tuesday.
The detention Monday in northern Syria was "another example of the success of Turkey's counterterrorism operation," President Tayyip Erdogan's communications director, Fahrettin Altun, said in a statement.
"Our determination to bring justice to those who seek to terrorize our people and destabilize our region cannot be questioned," he added.
Al-Baghdadi, the world’s most wanted terrorist, was killed Oct. 26 in a U.S.-led raid in northwestern Syria, President Donald Trump announced Sunday.
Earlier, Reuters reported that Rasmiya Awad, 65, had been captured in a raid near Azaz, Syria. Azaz is in a Turkish-controlled town near the border.
She was accompanied by five children when captured, Reuters reported, sourcing an unnamed official.
"We hope to gather a trove of intelligence from Baghdadi’s sister on the inner workings of ISIS," the official told Reuters.
Little independent information is available on Baghdadi's sister and NBC News was not immediately able to verify if the captured individual is her.
Altun, meanwhile, said the woman's capture was evidence of Turkey's determination to fight ISIS.
"Much dark propaganda against Turkey has been circulating to raise doubts about our resolve against Daesh," Altun wrote on Twitter, using another name for ISIS.
