{"id":66777,"date":"2019-11-07T22:06:18","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T22:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/11\/07\/abu-bakr-al-baghdadis-inner-circle-trying-to-enter-turkey-says-erdogan\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T12:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T12:02:17","slug":"abu-bakr-al-baghdadis-inner-circle-trying-to-enter-turkey-says-erdogan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/11\/07\/abu-bakr-al-baghdadis-inner-circle-trying-to-enter-turkey-says-erdogan\/","title":{"rendered":"Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi\u2019s inner circle trying to enter Turkey, says Erdogan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ANKARA, Turkey \u2014 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday that members of slain Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi\u2019s \u201cinner circle\u201d are trying to enter Turkey from Syria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erdogan also said the number of people with family ties to al-Baghdadi<\/a> who have been caught by Turkey \u201cis close to reaching double digits.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Turkish leader\u2019s comments were his second effort in as many days to publicize his country\u2019s push to catch IS members who were close to al-Baghdadi. Turkey is facing criticism that its recent military offensive to drive Syrian Kurdish fighters from northeast Syria would allow for an IS resurgence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of al-Baghdadi\u2019s inner circle is mostly targeting our country and these people are looking for ways to settle in our country or to come to our country,\u201d Erdogan told reporters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erdogan and Turkish officials revealed Wednesday that Turkish police detained one of al-Baghdadi\u2019s wives and a daughter last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Turkish official told The Associated Press that they were among a group of 11 IS suspects detained in a raid in southern Turkey on June 2, 2018. Police identified the wife as Asma Fawzi Muhammad al-Qubaysi. The official said she was the first wife of al-Baghdadi, who is known to have four wives. A subsequent DNA test confirmed that a suspect who identified herself as Leila Jabeer was al-Baghdadi\u2019s daughter, the official said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rasmiya
Undated handout photo made available by unnamed government sources showing a 65-year-old woman known as Rasmiya Awad, who is the sister of the slain leader of the Islamic State group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. (Handout via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This week, Turkish authorities said they captured al-Baghdadi\u2019s elder sister, Rasmiya Awad<\/a>, her husband, daughter-in-law and five children in the town of Azaz, in Aleppo province in northwestern Syria. The region is administered by Turkey following a previous military incursion that was launched in 2016. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erdogan said that the suspects were being kept in detention centers in Turkey while the Turkish Justice Ministry would decide how to handle their cases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al-Baghdadi blew himself up during an Oct. 26 raid by U.S. special forces on his heavily fortified safe house in the Syrian province of Idlib. The raid was a major blow to his extremist group, which has lost territories it held in Syria and Iraq in a series of military defeats by the U.S-led coalition and Syrian and Iraqi allies. <\/p>\n\n\n\t