By Illia Ponomarenko. Published Nov. 15. Updated Nov. 15 at 5:24 pm

An image taken from a propaganda video released on March 17, 2014 by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)’s al-Furqan Media allegedly shows ISIL fighters waving the trademark Jihadi flag as they stand on an armoured vehicle at an undisclosed location in the Anbar province.Photo by AFPPopular

Ukraine’s SBU security service has arrested Al Bara Shishani, a senior warlord with the notorious terror group Islamic State, in Kyiv Oblast, the security agency reported on Nov. 15.

The successful operation was conducted in cooperation with Georgia’s Interior Ministry and the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States.

Al Bara Shishani, a Georgian citizen of Chechen origins, occupied the post of the amir of the Islamic State’s religious-terrorist cell in the province of Latakia in Syria.

Starting in 2013, Shishani rose through the Islamic State’s ranks, becoming a deputy to Tarkhan Batirashvili, more commonly known as Abu Omar al-Shishani, a former Georgian Army serviceman of Chechen origins turned top Islamic State military commander.

Islamic State warlord Al Bara Shishani arrested by Ukraine’s SBU special service on Nov. 15, 2019.

After the assassination of Batirashvili in 2016, Al Bara Shishani went to Turkey where he continued coordinating the terror group’s activities. But in summer 2018, the terrorists migrated illegally to Ukraine under a forged passport, according to SBU.

He managed to obtain legal status in Ukraine and continued coordinating Islamic State cells.

“Ukrainian law enforcers arrested the criminal in the Kyiv Oblast near a private house he lived in,” the SBU said.

“A visual analysis proved the arrested foreigner to be actually the wanted Islamic State leader.”

As of now, the terrorist remains under rendition arrest, the Ukrainian special service said, adding that an investigation will determine if Shishani committed crimes on Ukrainian territory.

(C)KIYV POST 2019