The hunt for the leader of ISIS
Guardian: Isis wife reveals role in helping CIA hunt for Baghdadi Umm Sayyaf, sentenced to death in Iraq, tells how she exposed fugitive’s secrets ... In February 2016 she identified a house in Mosul in which Baghdadi was believed to have been staying. However, according to Kurdish officials, US commanders balked at calling for an airstrike on the home, only to later acknowledge the world’s most wanted man had probably been inside – his life spared by hectic activity in the skies over Iraq that night and a fear of civilian casualties in the densely packed neighbourhood. “I told them where the house was,” said Umm Sayyaf. “I knew he’d been there because it was one of the houses that was provided for him, and one of the places he liked the most.” Her marriage, and jihadist pedigree – her family had been an integral part of the Isis leadership – had given her more proximity to Baghdadi than nearly all other Isis women. As one of the organisation’s most important wives, she had ...