Lebanon: DNA test says child is ISIS head’s daughter

Lebanon’s interior minister says DNA tests have confirmed that a child held by authorities is the daughter of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group’s leader.

Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk also says that the child’s mother, who is also in custody, was married to ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi six years ago for a period of three months. He says they are no longer married.

Machnouk told Lebanon’s MTV television late Wednesday that Iraq sent Lebanese authorities DNA samples from al-Baghdadi to test against the woman, identified as Saja al-Dulaimi, and the girl.

“Dulaimi is not Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s wife currently. She has been married three times: first to a man from the former Iraqi regime, with whom she had two sons,” Nouhad Mashnuq said.

“Six years ago she married Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi for three months, and she had a daughter with him. Now, she is married to a Palestinian and she is pregnant with his child,” Mashnuq added.

“We conducted DNA tests on her and the daughter, which showed she was the mother of the girl, and that the girl is his (Baghdadi’s) daughter, based on DNA from Baghdadi from Iraq,” the minister said.

He said the girl and two other children detained with al-Dulaimi are being held in a child care center.

(With AFP and the Associated Press)