In coordination with East Anbar Operations, the person training the sniper bodyguards of the ISIS caliph was arrested in Anbar’s Garma area, the directorate of the Iraqi military intelligence said in a statement issued on Sunday.
“Garma Sniper” is a codename for the ISIS trainer, and was considered by Iraqi officials to be a leading ISIS militant who had an important role in the war around Anbar province. The statement released by the Iraqi military intelligence did not mentioned his identity or shown his photograph.
The US-led international anti-ISIS coalition announced this week that its operations have liberated 62-percent of the terrain ISIS once controlled in Iraq.
But finding ISIS leader Abu Bakir al-Baghdadi has proven difficult. Commanders occasionally make statements claiming to know his whereabouts.
“Abu Bakir al Baghdadi is hiding out in the area of Jazera which is close to the Syrian border,” Lt. Gen. Abdul Amin Yarallah, commander of 'We are Coming Nineveh' operation , recently told reporters.
On June 29, 2014, Baghdadi declared his caliphate at al-Hadba minaret and Nur Mosque in western Mosul.
Iraqi forces were reported within 1 kilometer of the mosque last week.
In December, the US State Department upped its reward from $10 million to $25 million for information leading to the location, arrest or conviction of Baghdadi.
“Al-Baghdadi is in hiding because he knows he’ll be killed when he’s found,” said coalition spokesman Col. John Dorrian, standing alongside Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga commanders in January.
