She is now being held by the interior ministry of Iraq’s autonomous province of Kurdistan, the U.S. Defense Department said.
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On Thursday, Umm Sayyaf, the wife of senior Islamic State leader Abu Sayyaf, who was killed in a US special operations raid in Syria in May, was transferred to the custody of the Iraqi government, the Pentagon announced. The U.S. decided that turning Umm Sayyaf, who is Iraqi, over to Kurdish authorities for prosecution was the most viable alternative…. U.S. officials have never confirmed that.
The U.S. raid May 15 killed Islamic State ringleader Abu Sayyaf, who handled much of the Islamic State’s finances using oil revenue from captured Syrian refineries.
Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren had revealed in May that, while Washington was working to find “an ultimate disposition for the detainee [Sayyaf]”, she would not end up in the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison facility. There have been suggestions that she and her husband were the captors of American hostage Kayla Mueller.
The legal status of the captive Umm Sayyaf was unclear after the raid, but U.S. officials have alleged that she was a member of the Islamic State group in her own right.
Sayyaf has been cooperating with American authorities following her capture, U.S. officials told the Associated Press, reportedly offering a “trove” of intelligence about ISIS operations in both Iraq and Syria.
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“Administration officials said they were in contact with Ms. Mueller’s family prior to releasing Umm Sayyaf”.
