Screen Shot: https://twitter.com/macergifford/status/1217941920590258177

An Iraqi SWAT team captured a long “wanted” ISIS leader, Abu Abdul Bari, also known as Shifa al-Nima, on Thursday in Mosul. Due to his morbid obesity, he has been dubbed “Jabba the Jihadi.” The 560-pound mufti (a Muslim legal expert who is empowered to give rulings on religious matters) was too large to fit into a police car, so he was loaded onto a flatbed truck and carted off to jail.

Leave it to the New York Post to come up with the best puns for these guys: “He put the fat in fatwa.” “The captured caliphatty.” Twitchy deserves an honorable mention as well: “Does this outfit make me look fatwa?”

Iraq’s Security Media Cell issued a statement about the arrest of the terrorist leader which said:

He is known for his provocative speeches against the [Iraqi] security forces, and he was inciting affiliation and allegiance to ISIS and educating extremist ideology during ISIS’ control over Mosul.

He is considered one of the leaders in the first row of ISIS gangs, and he is responsible for issuing fatwas regarding the execution of a number of scholars and clerics who refrained from pledging allegiance to ISIS.

During the heyday of the group’s self-styled caliphate in 2014, he also ordered the destruction of a mosque built at the site believed to be the burial place of the biblical prophet Jonah, who once had a famous encounter with a whale.

Maajid Nawaz, founder of the London-based counter-extremist organization Quilliam, posted about Bari on Facebook. He wrote:

He was so overweight, maybe from remaining sedentary in his hiding place, that he had to be taken by police in the back of a pick up truck…

Most religious justifications provided to ISIS for enslaving, raping, torturing, ethnic cleansing & massacring Iraqis, Syrians & others are from this paltry beast who can’t even stand on his own two legs…

Do not underestimate the psychological blow the image of this obese monster being arrested is to ISIS. Gluttony is frowned upon by jihadists. But also, ISIS branded themselves as fighters possessing rare courage & discipline… meanwhile this walrus was their top religious cleric.

Today was a good day for the Force & a bad day for evil.

British human rights activist Macer Gifford, who fought with a US-backed Kurdish militia in Syria, tweeted: “I’m delighted to say that the Islamic State’s very own Jabba the Hutt has been captured in Mosul. As long as the Devil bastes him properly Shifa al Nima should crisp nicely in hell…He literally looks like the world’s biggest chicken. Good luck hanging him Iraq.”

Mosul had been ISIS’ stronghold when they first emerged in Iraq in mid-2014 until the city was recaptured in July 2017. Iraqi media outlet Kurdistan 24 reports that the group continues to conduct attacks in areas it once controlled, embarking on a wave of kidnappings, assassinations, and bombings that have raised fears of a new stage of heightened insurgency.”

Kurdistan 24 also reported that a second “prominent terrorist” was arrested earlier in the week in southern Mosul.

Following the U.S. strike which killed Qassem Soleimani on January 3, the U.S. and Iraq suspended their joint operations against ISIS. On Wednesday, the U.S. military announced they had resumed.

I'm delighted to say that the Islamic States very own Jabba the Hut has been captured in Mosul.
Responsible for the execution of men, women and children.
This animal raped and murdered.

Good luck hanging him Iraq 😬 pic.twitter.com/r1naWIXYMA

— Macer Gifford (@macergifford) January 16, 2020

I'm glad @realdonaldtrump's actions in the region supporting our great military have gotten most of the the others so this is whats left?

ISIS leader dubbed 'Jabba the Jihadi' captured in Iraq https://t.co/LKlnOiJfAL via @nypost

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 17, 2020