(CNN) — The Lebanese government on Tuesday released an estranged former wife of ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as part of a prisoner swap with an al Qaeda affiliate, a Lebanese security official said.
The woman, Saja al-Dulaimi, was among a group of Islamists that the Lebanese government exchanged for Lebanese soldiers held captive by the al Qaeda-affiliated al Nusra Front, the security official said on condition of anonymity.
Dulaimi, who reportedly has been divorced from Baghdadi for more than six years, had been in Lebanese custody since her arrest in December 2014 as she was trying to enter the country from Syria.
The prisoner swap, following lengthy negotiations, was happening Tuesday in the Lebanese town of Aarsal, near the Syrian border, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said.
Al Nursra Front is expected to release 16 Lebanese soldiers who were kidnapped from Aarsal in August 2014, the NNA reported. Lebanon also is receiving the body of slain soldier Mohammed Hamieh, who was among those kidnapped, NNA reported.
The NNA report did not mention Dulaimi’s release.
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