ISIL Militants In Swap for Turkish Hostages

BBC BREAKING NEWS

○ Pentagon: US launches air strikes on Syrian state against IS militants
○ (Turkish News) and RT: U.S. air strikes over Syria in a coalition with Arab Gulf States

According to Jonathan Karl, chief White House correspondent for ABC News, five Arab nations are taking part in the first round of airstrikes in Syria: Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

So Erdogan and Turkey have a new partner in the overthrow of Syria’s Bashar Assad, the terror group Liwa al-Tawhid. VP Joe Biden can be certain the vetting proces has been successful.

Syrian rebel group freed ISIL militants in swap for Turkish hostages

Syrian rebel group Liwa al-Tawhid released 50 members of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), including the family of a late leader, in a swap deal that ended with the release of 49 hostages abducted from Turkey’s consulate in Mosul, according to security sources.

The wife and children of Samir Abid Mohammad al-Halefawi [nom de guerre Haji Bakr], an ISIL leader killed in Aleppo in February, were among the released ISIL members in the simultaneous exchange for the Turkish mission, the source told Hürriyet.

Haji Bakr’s real name was Samir Abid Mohammad al-Halefawi, and that he served as an air defense officer in Saddam Hussein’s army before joining Al-Qaeda in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Haji Bakr supervised a series of attacks against hotels and embassies in Iraq in 2010, and headed the military council of Al-Qaeda in Iraq after the group’s then-leader, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, was killed in 2010, the official said.

Haji Bakr had almost no public profile before a few weeks ago as rumors of his death spread.

Aymenn al-Tamimi, an expert on militant groups at the Middle East Forum, said it was not surprising that Haji Bakr was little known, saying the Islamic State “is very low profile about who’s at the very top of their leadership.”

A total of 49 Turkish embassy staff were held hostage by ISIL for 101 days and were freed on Sept. 20.

The source said Liwa al-Tawhid, a group that split from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and fights against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, agreed to free the ISIL members after rounds of talks. As part of the deal, the Turkish staff was released at a spot close to Turkey’s Akçakale border gate with Syria.

The Turkish staff reached Raqqa at 8 a.m. on Sept. 5, but they were still held until the ISIL members were handed over in the early hours of Sept. 20, according to the source.

The family of Haji Bakr and a number of other members were taken hostage by Liwa al-Tawhid during the clash in which Haji Bakr himself was killed.