An Iraqi official is denying that a woman detained in Lebanon is a wife of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group.
Wednesday’s denial comes a day after Lebanese authorities said they are holding a woman believed to be al-Baghdadi’s wife. They said she was detained for travelling with a fake ID and had herself claimed that she is the reclusive extremist leader’s spouse.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan Ibrahim told The Associated Press that the woman is Saja Abdul Hamid al-Dulaimi, an Iraqi national who traveled to Syria before arriving in Lebanon.
Ibrahim says she is the sister of Omar Abdul Hamid al-Dulaimi, who is held in Iraq as a terror suspect.
Ibrahim says al-Baghdadi has two wives but neither is named Saja al-Dulaimi.
