Iraq Arrests ISIS Financial Chief Wanted By US: What you need to know

Sami Jasim al-Jaburi, the alleged finance chief of the Islamic State group, arrested by intelligence services "outside the borders" of Iraq.(AFP)/Hindustan Times

Iraq has captured the alleged finance chief of the ISIS group, Sami Jasim al-Jaburi, who was sought by the United States, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi announced Monday.

Al-Kadhemi described it as “one of the most difficult" cross border intelligence operations ever conducted by Iraqi forces.

The US had offered a reward of up to $5 million for the capture of Jaburi.

The US Rewards for Justice programme said Jaburi within IS had "reportedly served as the equivalent of... finance minister, supervising the group's revenue-generating operations from illicit sales of oil, gas, antiquities and minerals".

Iraqi intelligence officials told The Associated Press that Jaburi was detained in an identified foreign country and transported to Iraq a few days ago. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak of the operation on the record.

Jaburi worked with al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in 2006. He assumed various security positions in Iraq, and moved to Syria in 2015, after the Islamic State group, an al-Qaida offshoot, declared its caliphate in 2014 and became the deputy of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the extremist group's leader.

Al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S.-led raid in northwestern Syria in 2019, under former U.S. President Donald Trump.