Iraq Arrests Senior Member of Daesh Terror Group
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi tweeted the news, identifying the man as Sami Jassem, who oversees Daesh’s financial operations and served as the deputy leader of the group under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
He described it as “one of the most difficult" cross border intelligence operations ever conducted by Iraqi forces.
Iraqi intelligence officials told AP that Jassem was detained in an unidentified foreign country and transported to Iraq a few days ago. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak of the operation on the record.
Jassem worked with al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, before he was killed by in 2016. He assumed various security positions in Iraq, and moved to Syria in 2015, after Daesh declared its caliphate in 2014 and became the deputy of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the terrorist group’s leader who was killed in northwestern Syria in 2019.
