The wife of the former IS leader who died during a raid on his compound last month has been captured by Turkey, the country’s president has announced.

It comes after US President Donald Trump announced last month that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had killed himself during a raid on his compound in north-west Syria during an operation by his country’s special forces.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the announcement that Turkey had captured the former IS leader’s wife in a speech at Ankara University.

At the same time he criticised the US decision to announce al-Baghdadi’s death, saying: “The United States said Baghdadi killed himself in a tunnel.

“They started a communication campaign about this.

“But, I am announcing it here for the first time: we captured his wife and didn’t make a fuss like them. Similarly,
we also captured his sister and brother-in-law in Syria.”

Mr Erdogan gave no other details during his announcement.

Turkish officials had already revealed that the country had captured al-Baghdadi’s sister, identified as Rasmiya Awad, and her husband.

Both are said to be under investigation over their part in the terror group, however it is not known to what extent they were actually involved.

It is reported they were found in the town of Azaz in Aleppo province, an area now under Turkish control, living in the back of a truck.

Turkish officials described their capture as an intelligence “gold mine”.

It is not clear whether the capture of Awad led to the detention of al-Baghdadi’s wife.

An aide of al-Baghdadi said that the late-terror leader had four wives – the maximum allowed at any one time according to Islamic law.

Not much is known about the terror leader’s relationships, but one of his wives has been revealed to be an Iraqi called Nour, who is the daughter of one of his aides and was identified by name by al-Baghdadi’s brother-in-law in a recent TV interview with al-Arabiya.

An ex-wife of his was arrested in Lebanon in 2014, but released a year later in a prisoner swap with al Qaeda, while another fled from the former-IS leader in 2009 during her pregnancy with his daughter.

Al-Baghdadi’s death is a major blow to the terror group, which has lost territory in Syria and Iraq in a series of US-led attacks.

The terror group has since named a successor to al-Baghdadi, Abu Ibrahim al Hashemi al Quraishi, but not much is known about him.

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