Baghdadi aide revealed how 'caliph' held secret meetings in vegetable trucks

The aide, identified as Ismael al-Ethawi, was arrested by Turkish authorities in the summer of 2018 and later handed over to Iraqi authorities.

"Ethawi gave valuable information which helped the Iraqi multi-security agencies team complete the missing pieces of the puzzle of Baghdadi's movements and places he used to hide," one of the Iraqi security officials was quoted as saying. 

"Ethawi gave us details on five men, including him, whom were meeting Baghdadi inside Syria and the different locations they used," he added. 

Ethawi, a PhD doctor in Islamic Sciences, was reportedly one of Baghdadi's top five aides, having first forrayed into militant Islamist extremism when he join Al-Qaeda in 2006.

Two years later, Ethawi was arrested by US forces in Iraq and jailed for four years, according to the Reuters sources.

Ethwawi was reportedly tasked with delivering religious instructions and selecting commanders for the militant group.

His centrality to the group meant that once he was in custody, intelligence agents were able to use a mobile phone app on Ethawi's device to lure at least four senior commanders of IS into a trap.

The intelligence provided through Ethawi eventually allowed Iraqi sources to close in on Baghdadi.

"They gave us all the locations where they were meeting with Baghdadi inside Syria and we decided to coordinate with the CIA to deploy more sources inside these areas," one of the Reuters sources said.

"In mid-2019 we managed to locate Idlib as the place where Baghdadi was moving from village to village with his family and three close aides," he added.