ISTANBUL - Turkish authorities detained the wife of Abu Omar al-Shishani, a senior Islamic State commander killed in combat two years ago, in a counter-terrorism operation in Istanbul this month, police said late on Thursday.
Dubbed Islamic State's "war minister" and a close adviser to the extremist group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Georgian Shishani was killed in action in the Iraq district of Shirqat, south of Mosul, in July 2016.
His wife was one five people detained in simultaneous raids across Istanbul on the night of July 4 that targeted people believed to have connections with conflict zones and actively seeking to carry out attacks, police said in a statement.
Her identity as Sishani's wife was only discovered following several days of questioning, after her passport was determined to be fake, police said. They identified her only by the initials "S.D.."
She was formally arrested by an Istanbul court on July 17 and jailed, police said. She had two sons with Shishani, police said, although the whereabouts of the children was unclear.