Turkey announced it captured deceased ISIS leader al-Baghdadi's wife, and took a thinly veiled swipe at Trump in the process
- In a speech at Ankara University the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had captured al-Baghdadi's wife in Syria.
- "We caught his wife but look, we didn't make a big ruckus out of it, today is the first time we are announcing it," he said in what appeared to be a swipe at Trump.
- Trump took a victory lap after al-Baghdadi's death, holding a triumphant press conference the day after the raid.
- Erdogan did not give any further details about the woman or how she was captured.
- The announcement came just one day after Turkey said it captured al-Baghdadi's older sister Rasmiya Awad near the Turkish-controlled town of Azaz.
- It is unclear whether the wife was captured in the same operation.
- 11 days ago ISIS leader al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid by US special forces in Barisha, northwestern Syria.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey has captured one of the wives of the late ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria, and took a thinly-veiled swipe at Trump in the process.
11 days ago ISIS leader al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid by US special forces in Barisha, northwestern Syria.
Erdogan announced the capture of al-Baghdadi's wife on Wednesday in a speech at Ankara University.
In the speech Erdogan said: "They [the US] launched a very serious PR campaign" around their role in the death of al-Baghdadi.
"We caught his wife but look, we didn't make a big ruckus out of it, today is the first time we are announcing it," he went on to say in a thinly veiled swipe at US President Donald Trump's grandstanding over al-Baghdadi's death.
A clip from the speech can be seen below.
Trump took a victory lap after al-Baghdadi's death, first alluding to the death by cryptically tweeting the evening before his demise was announced that "something very big has just happened!"
He then went on to give a triumphant press conference announcing the death, giving a gory, and seemingly inaccurate, account of the raid, including the clai that al-Baghdadi was "trembling" and "crying" before his death.
It was this grandstanding that Erdogan mocked on Wednesday. He did not give any further details about how Turkish forces captured the woman or give any details of who she is, but said al-Baghdadi's sister and brother-in-law had also been captured in Syria.
The announcement came one day after Turkey captured Rasmiya Awad, al-Baghdadi's 65-year-old sister, the AP and Reuters reported, citing an unnamed senior Turkish official.
Awad was captured along with her husband and daughter-in-law in a raid near Azaz, a Turkish-controlled Syrian town, according to the AP.
"We hope to gather a trove of intelligence from Baghdadi's sister on the inner workings of ISIS," the official told Reuters.
It is not clear whether al-Baghdadi's wife was captured in the same operation.
Al-Baghdadi died when he detonated a suicide vest in a tunnel on October 26 during a US raid carried out by the Delta Force commandos.
The deceased former ISIS leader is rumoured to have had four wives, according to The Associated Press (AP).
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