Iraq arrests ISIS finance chief wanted by US

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

Jaburi, also the suspected former deputy to the late IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was arrested by intelligence services "outside the borders" of Iraq, Kadhemi said on Twitter.

He did not specify the location but said Jaburi was captured in a "complex external operation".

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".

In September 2015, the US Treasury Department labelled Jaburi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

IS took a third of Iraq in a lightning offensive in 2014.

Iraq's government declared victory against the jihadists in late 2017 after a grinding military campaign backed by a US-led coalition.

Baghdadi was killed in a raid by US special forces in northwestern Syria in October 2019.