Facebook profiles and pages have recently gone viral with allegations that the wife of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi addressed her husband’s tight relationship with Iran and that Iran was instructed to attack exclusively Arab nations. Nevertheless, an investigation has revealed that these claims are misleading.
Some accounts and pages shared the claim only, but others included photographs that claimed to be of Baghdadi and one of his wives.
The True Platform team investigated the matter using reverse image searches and keyword searches on Google, leading to several findings:
Al-Arabiya recently interviewed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s first wife, Asma Mohammed, and his third wife, Noor Ibrahim. In neither interview was Iran mentioned, nor was any association between al-Baghdadi and Iran discussed.
No similar statements from Baghdadi’s wives are available in other media outlets.
Users claimed that Baghdadi was the man in one photograph with the woman, and that before he declared himself to be the “Caliph,” his real name was Shimon Elliot.
The examination revealed that the man in the photograph is Jordanian musician Moataz Hatar, and the photograph dates back to 2014.
The reverse image search indicated that the photo purported to be of Baghdadi’s wife is actually of Zeinab Soleimani, the daughter of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
Conclusion:
The claim that Baghdadi’s wife stated her husband had a close relationship with Iran is misleading. Furthermore, the photo being circulated as Baghdadi’s wife is incorrect.