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Lebanese security officials on Tuesday said the military had detained "a wife and child" of Islamic State (IS) group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, there were conflicting reports about the identities of the detainees.

Earlier Tuesday, Lebanese security officials said a wife and child of the reclusive jihadist leader were detained around 10 days ago while they were attempting to cross the border from Syria into Lebanon.

According to jihadists and journalists contacted by FRANCE 24, the woman detained at the Syria-Lebanon border is Saja al-Dulaimi, the wife of Anas Jarkas, a senior leader (or emir) of the Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s Syrian branch.

Al-Dulaimi first emerged under the media spotlight earlier this year, following a prisoner swap between the Syrian regime and the Nusra Front.

“A woman is currently in detention,” after she was arrested 10 days ago by the Lebanese military intelligence service while traveling “near [the Sunni-dominated Syrian border town] of Arsal,” a source told FRANCE 24. But a number of sources have also told FRANCE 24 that al-Dulaimi is not Baghdadi’s wife.

According to Lebanese newspaper As-Safir, which broke the story, Lebanese authorities detained the woman as she was traveling with a fake passport. The arrest was conducted in coordination with a “foreign intelligence service,” according to As-Safir.

Initial reports said the woman, identified as Baghdadi’s wife, was arrested along with his son. But Lebanese security officials later revealed that they had detained Baghdadi’s daughter, contradicting earlier reports.

FRANCE 24 has learned that the woman was arrested along with three children. A security source who had access to the minutes of the detained woman’s interrogation also said she was not Baghdadi’s wife and described her as “very defiant” under questioning.

DNA tests underway, but what do they say?

Lebanese judicial officials have told reporters that DNA tests were underway to confirm if any of the detained children are Baghdadi’s offspring. Baghdadi was a prisoner at the US-run Camp Bucca facility in Iraq following the 2003 US invasion.

According to some reports, Baghdadi has a daughter. Of the three children arrested at the Syria-Lebanese border last month, FRANCE 24 has learned that only the girl is undergoing DNA tests to establish if she is Baghdadi’s child.

Lebanese security sources have been providing contradictory reports about whether the DNA tests have been positive or negative. The doubts surrounding the latest reports of the arrest of Baghdadi’s wife have been further fueled by questions over why a militant Sunni leader controlling territories in Iraq and Syria would send his wife and child to Lebanon, a predominantly Shiite country where the Shiite group Hezbollah holds extensive power.

Reporting from the Lebanese capital of Beirut, FRANCE 24’s Adam Pletts advised caution over reports of the alleged arrest of Baghdadi’s wife and child. “We should be extremely cautious about these reports because there’s been no confirmation from the Lebanese government,” said Pletts, noting that the details of the detainees have been “murky” and often contradictory.

An unnamed IS group fighter in Syria interviewed by Reuters also denied reports that Baghdadi’s wife had been detained. "I have checked with our leaders and they said it was false news," the militant told Reuters.

Source : http://www.france24.com