Iraqi intelligence teams were reportedly able to get key insight into how Islamic State founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi escaped capture for so long from a top aide who was arrested in 2018. Reuters reports Ismael al-Ethawi, a key adviser to the terrorist leader, said Baghdadi sometimes held strategic talks with his commanders while driving in minibuses packed with vegetables to avoid detection. “Ethawi gave valuable information which helped the Iraqi multi-security agencies team complete the missing pieces of the puzzle of Baghdadi’s movements and places he used to hide,” an Iraqi security official told Reuters. Another Iraqi security official told Reuters that other top aides who turned against the terrorist chieftain filled in the rest of the details. “They gave us all the locations where they were meeting with Baghdadi inside Syria and we decided to coordinate with the CIA to deploy more sources inside these areas,” the Iraqi official said. “We passed the details to the CIA and they used a satellite and drones to watch the location for the past five months.”
