Baghdad: Iraqi security forces have captured a senior member of the Islamic State group who was a deputy to killed leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and oversaw its finances, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said on Monday. The Prime Minister has announced the arrest of Sami Jasim, a high-ranking member of the Islamic State who was also the Deputy of the terror group's late leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in an operation outside the country.

The Iraqi Intelligence Service carried out a complex operation outside the country to arrest Jasim, who was in charge of Islamic State financial affairs, the Prime Minister said in a social media post on Monday. Al-Kadhimi did not provide further details about when and where exactly the operation took place.

An official statement by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said that Jasim was captured in an operation outside Iraq's borders without giving further details. Jasim is close to a committee in charge of running the extremist group and to the group's current leader Abdullah Qaradash, according to a command statement. The US had offered a USD 5 million reward for information leading to Jasim's capture. The Intelligence Service once controlled 88,000 sq km of territory stretching from eastern Iraq to western Syria and imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people. Although the group's defeat on the battlefield in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria the following year, it is estimated that thousands of militants remain active in both countries.

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