(AFP) US-backed Kurdish-led forces have detained German jihadist Martin Lemke after he fled the last pocket held by the Islamic State group in Syria, two of his wives said Thursday.
His third wife, a German national who gave her name as Leonora, told AFP at a screening centre in the province of Deir Ezzor that Lemke, his second wife and herself fled the fighting together.
“We gave up together,” the 19-year-old said in English, adding that Lemke arrived with her at the centre run by the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-Arab outfit that has spearheaded the fight against IS.
The jihadist group is only hanging on to a tiny rump of its once-sprawling “caliphate” and many of its residents are fleeing and turning themselves in before a final offensive.
