An Iraqi SWAT team captured a rotund ISIS leader nicknamed “Jabba the Hutt” in the country’s second-largest city.
Capturing the hefty high-ranking jihadi alive presented unique logistical challenges.
Initial reports claim ISIS mufti Abu Abdul Bari, also known as Shifa al-Nima, weighs 300 lbs – although he looks closer to 300 kilograms in photographs.
Regardless, a flat-bed truck had to haul Bari away from his hideout in Mosul to a security cell, where the government announced his capture.
Stars and Stripes reports:
Considered by ISIS to be an authority in Quranic law, Bari issued religious rulings, or fatwas, ordering the execution of scholars and clerics who refused to pledge allegiance to the terrorist group when it occupied Mosul, the statement said. He also ordered the July 2014 destruction of a mosque built at the site believed to be the burial place of the biblical prophet Jonah, who once had a notable encounter with a whale.
The mosque was one of several cultural sites the extremist group destroyed as it swept across Syria and Iraq, claiming large swaths of territory for its self-styled caliphate. The group has been ousted from all the territory it once held but remains an insurgent threat in the region.
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The images of his arrest would strike a psychological blow against ISIS, Maajid Nawaz, founder of the London-based counter-extremist organization Quilliam, wrote on Facebook.
“Gluttony is frowned upon by jihadists. But also, ISIS branded themselves as fighters possessing rare courage & discipline … meanwhile this walrus was their top religious cleric,” he said.
AAN Staff
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