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- Sami Jasim is key Baghdadi deputy with $5 million US bounty on his head
JEDDAH: Iraqi security forces have captured Daesh “finance minister” Sami Jasim, a key deputy to former leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi with a $5 million US bounty on his head.
Jasim, an Iraqi, was detained in “a complex external operation” by the country’s intelligence services, Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said on Monday.
“We applaud our brave Iraqi partners as they regularly lead and conduct destructive blows to the remnants of Daesh,” said Lt. Col. Joel Harper, spokesman for the US-led coalition working with Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria against what remains of the terrorist group. In Iraq, Daesh militants still carry out regular attacks on police, army and state paramilitary units, killing dozens of police and fighters in the past year.
Baghdadi, who declared himself leader of a cross-border “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq in 2014, was killed in 2019 in an operation by US special forces in northwestern Syria.
As his deputy, Jasim was one of Daesh’s core leaders who might offer valuable information on its operations, said Hassan Hassan, an expert on the group. He is only the second senior Daesh leader to be captured.
HIGHLIGHT
Jasim, an Iraqi, was detained in ‘a complex external operation’ by the country’s intelligence services, Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said on Monday.
Hassan, author of a book on Daesh and editor in chief of New Lines magazine, said Jasim was a member of Daesh’s top leadership council, the delegated committee, which had between half a dozen and a dozen members, and was a close aide of the group’s leader, Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashemi Al-Quraishi.
His role had expanded from overseer of the group’s finances to coordinating activities between Iraq and Syria, Hassan said. “He is involved in the day-to-day operations of Daesh in Syria and Iraq, so strategically and tactically, this is a significant capture for the Iraqis. Usually, Daesh leaders blow themselves up or fight to the end.”
According to the website of the US State Department’s counterterrorism Rewards for Justice program, which offers $5 million for information leading to Jasim’s arrest, he has been “instrumental in managing finances for Daesh’s terrorist operations.”
It says: “While serving as Daesh deputy in southern Mosul in 2014, he reportedly served as the equivalent of Daesh’s finance minister, supervising the group’s revenue-generating operations from illicit sales of oil, gas, antiquities, and minerals.”