<p class="p1">President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that &#8220;Five Most Wanted leaders of ISIS&#8221; were captured by Iraqi forces together with U.S.-backed Syrian forces.</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">&#8220;These arrests are a significant blow to ISIS as we continue to remove its leadership and fighters from the battlefield,&#8221; said Marine Maj. Adrian J.T. Rankine-Galloway, Pentagon Spokesman giving credit to the Iraqi forces.&#8221;The success of this operation is indicative of the improved capabilities of our partners to defeat ISIS. The coalition is not in a position to confirm details on the captured leaders, and we have no additional information to offer at this time.&#8221;</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Then on Friday, Iraqi authorities released details about the arrest of the five Islamic State (IS) leaders.</span> ;</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The arrested terrorists have been identified as follows, according to the Iraqi military.</span></p>
<ul class="ul1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">&#8220;Saddam Omar Yahya al-Jamal, known as Abu Rukya al-Ansari, the so-called security commander of the Euphrates and the revolutionary commander of the Eastern Brigade.&#8221;</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">&#8220;Mohammed Hussein Hadar, known as Abu Saif al-Shu&#8217;aiti&#8221; ;</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">&#8220;Abdul Qader Ashour al-Zobaie, known as Abu Abdul Hak al-Iraqi, the so-called commander of the Fatih strike force.&#8221;</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">&#8220;Omar Shahab Hammad al-Karbouli, known as Abu Hafs al-Karbouli, the so-called Intelligence Commander of the Euphrates.&#8221;</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1">&#8220;Ismail Alwan Salman al-Ithawi, known as Abu Zaid al-Iraqi, one of [Abu Bakir] al-Baghdadi&#8217;s assistant and Chairman of the Planning Committee in the so-called Islamic State.&#8221;</span></li>
</ul>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">&#8220;Under the supervision and guidance of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Dr. Haider al-Abadi, and with great effort by the Iraqi National Intelligence Service in coordination with the Joint Operations Command, a major operation was carried out, leading to the arrest of important IS leaders who participated in attacks on our dear provinces of Anbar and Mosul,&#8221; said the Iraqi military in a statement.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The ISIS militants were captured at the Iraq-Syria border. The spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve Army Col. Ryan Dillon referred to the arrested with similar language to Trump&#8217;s as being &#8220;key&#8221; leaders of ISIS.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">&#8220;#Iraq captures 5 key Daesh leaders during #OperationRoundup. The arrest is a significant blow to Daesh &; demonstrates close coordination between #ISF &; #SDF in their fight to #defeatDaesh. @CJTFOIR is committed to lasting defeat of Daesh &; setting conditions for stabilization,&#8221; tweeted Dillion.</span> ;</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><em>CNN </em>reported that two Iraqi sources said that the five leaders were captured back in early spring and on Wednesday, the Iraqi state television,<em> al-Iraqiya TV</em> reported that the capture was part of a mission dubbed &#8220;Operation 732,&#8221; where the Iraqi intelligence lured the leaders into Iraq from Syria.</span> ;</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The Iraqi government then was able to gather information from their interrogations to orchestrate an air strike killing 40 ISIS terrorists.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> ;</span></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Al-Baghdadi, who remains one of the coalition&#8217;s top targets, is still at-large and suspected to be somewhere on the border between Syria and Iraq.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> ;</span></span> ;</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">&#8220;He is the main individual we are after, for two reasons,&#8221; said Michael Morrell, the former acting director of the CIA. &#8220;One is his removal would be a symbol of the defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria and he is a galvanizing force holding the rest of the group together. So if he went away, it would splinter apart.&#8221;</span> ;</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Although ISIS has gradually lost control in Iraq since 2014, the conflict with the terrorist group in Syria is still very much a problem.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> ;</span></span> ;</p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">&#8220;The U.S. -led coalition supported Iraqi ground forces and Syrian fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces in the more than three-year war against ISIS.After Iraqi forces retook the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS last summer, Syrian forces on the other side of the border claimed a series of swift victories, but the campaign was stalled recently when Turkey launched a cross-border raid into Syria&#8217;s north,&#8221; writes <em>Fox News</em>. &#8220;Earlier this month the coalition announced a drive to clear the final pockets of ISIS territory inside Syria.&#8221;</span></p>