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 The woman was identified as Saja al-Dulaimi, an Iraqi, by a
Lebanese security official and a senior political source.
The Lebanese newspaper As-Safir reported she had been detained in
coordination with "foreign intelligence".
The arrest is a blow to Baghdadi and could be used as a bargaining
chip against his group, which has captured many foreign, Iraqi and
Syrian prisoners and declared a caliphate in territory it has seized
in Syria and Iraq.
A senior Lebanese security official said Baghdadi's wife had been
traveling with one of their daughters, contradicting earlier reports
that it was his son. DNA tests were conducted to verify it was
Baghdadi's child, the official said.
They were detained in northern Lebanon. Investigators were
questioning her at the Lebanese defense ministry. There was no
immediate reaction from Islamic State websites.
Dulaimi was one of 150 women released from a Syrian government jail
in March as part of a prisoner swap that led to the release of 13
nuns taken captive by al Qaeda-linked militants in Syria, according
to media reports at the time.
 A source with contacts with Iraqi intelligence said the captured
woman was an Iraqi wife of Baghdadi’s, but could not confirm the
name. There was cooperation between Iraqi and Lebanese authorities
leading up to her capture, the source said.
Baghdadi has three wives, two Iraqis and one Syrian, according to
tribal sources in Iraq.
Islamic State has seized wide areas of Iraq and Syria, Lebanon's
neighbor to the east.
The Lebanese security forces have cracked down on the group's
sympathizers and the intelligence services have been extra vigilant
on the borders with Syria.
They have arrested over the past few months dozens of Islamic
militants suspected of staging attacks to expand Islamic State
influence in Lebanon.
A U.S.-led alliance is seeking to roll back Islamic State's
territorial gains in Iraq and Syria. U.S. President Barack Obama has
vowed to "degrade and ultimately destroy" Baghdadi's group, which is
seeking to reshape the Middle East according to its radical vision
of Islam.
U.S. OFFERS BOUNTY FOR BAGHDADI
Spillover from the Syrian conflict has repeatedly jolted neighboring
Lebanon. Militants affiliated to the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and
Islamic State are demanding the release of Islamists held by the
Lebanese authorities in exchange for 27 members of the Lebanese
security forces taken captive in August.
Islamic State, which U.S-led forces are bombing in Iraq and Syria,
includes thousands of foreign fighters and its leadership draws from
militants with combat experience in Iraq.
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The United States is offering $10 million for information leading to
the location, arrest, or conviction of Baghdadi, an Iraqi, whose
real name is Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarai.
Baghdadi called for attacks against the rulers of Saudi Arabia in a
speech purported to be in his name last month.
He said his self-declared caliphate was expanding in Saudi Arabia
and four other Arab countries and called for "volcanoes of jihad"
the world over in the speech released on Nov. 13.
A CV of Baghdadi published on social media in July by Islamic State
sympathizers described him as married but gave no further details.
Born in 1971, Baghdadi comes from an Iraqi family of preachers and
Arabic teachers, according to a biography distributed on Islamist
forums that says he studied at the Islamic University in Baghdad.
According to U.S. media reports, Baghdadi was detained for several
years at Camp Bucca, a U.S.-run prison in southern Iraq, before
becoming head of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010, a predecessor to
Islamic State, which expanded into Syria in 2013.
In June this year, his group named him "caliph for the Muslims
everywhere", and called on all Muslims to pledge allegiance.
Although he is rarely pictured, a video released in July showed him
preaching in a mosque in the Iraqi city of Mosul, dressed in a black
robe and turban.
He has proven ruthless in eliminating opponents and showed no
hesitation in turning against former allies: he launched a war
against al Qaeda's Syria wing Nusra Front, leading to a split with
al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, earlier this year.
The Lebanese authorities have also detained the wife of Anas
Shirkas, senior Nusra Front leader from Syria, security officials
said on Tuesday. They did not identify her.
(Additional reporting by Saif Hameed in Iraq; Writing by Sylvia
Westall and Tom Perry; Editing by Samia Nakhoul, Janet McBride and
Giles Elgood)
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