ISTANBUL (NYTIMES) - Turkey has captured one of the wives of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the slain leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group, in addition to several other family members, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech on Wednesday (Nov 6).

He also confirmed the capture of al-Baghdadi's elder sister and brother-in-law in the town of Azaz, in a Turkish-controlled part of northern Syria, several days ago.

The Turkish leader, speaking at the Islamic Studies Faculty of Ankara University, took a swipe at the fanfare with which President Donald Trump announced the death of al-Baghdadi last month.

Trump proclaimed al-Baghdadi's demise in a nationally televised address, at a time when US forces were withdrawing from the area.

"As you know, Baghdadi killed himself in the tunnel," Erdogan said, describing how the ISIS leader blew himself up along with two of his children when cornered by US Special Operations forces in northwestern Syria.

"The US with that initiated a serious communication campaign," Erdogan said. "We, too, have captured Baghdadi's wife. But we did not make a fuss about it. I am announcing it here for the first time. Likewise, we have captured his sister and brother-in-law."

Erdogan did not disclose the wife's name or give details of her capture.

Al-Baghdadi was thought to have four wives, but it is unclear how many of them are alive. American officials have said that three women were killed in the raid in which the terrorist leader died on the night of Oct 26, but it is unclear whether that included any of his wives.

Al-Baghdadi seems to have relied increasingly on close family members for his security as his self-proclaimed caliphate was defeated and his area of operations curtailed. Another of al-Baghdadi's wives was arrested by the Iraqi National Intelligence Service earlier this year, and a courier was killed, according to a senior Iraqi official.

That operation ultimately helped Iraqi and American officials determine al-Baghdadi's location in northwestern Syria and set in motion the plan that led to his death.

When he announced that mission, Trump said that two of the ISIS leader's wives had been killed in the raid.

"There were two women - both wives, both wearing vests," Trump said at the White House, in response to a question about whether one of al-Baghdadi's wives had tried to detonate an explosive vest as commandos closed in. "They never detonated. But they were dead."

On Wednesday, a senior State Department official said he could not confirm Turkish reports that al-Baghdadi's wife, sister and other members of his family had been captured. He also said the State Department knew "almost nothing" about al-Baghdadi's successor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi.

The official, who briefed journalists on the condition that he not be named, said that al-Qurayshi "appears to be a nobody" and that based on what little is known about him, "we're not impressed."

"If he is in Iraq or Syria, we don't think he is too long for this world anyway," the official said.

He would not say whether al-Qurayshi had ever been detained by US forces, as al-Baghdadi was early in the Iraq War.

Turkish officials have been keen to emphasise Turkey's role in fighting terrorism and pursuing ISIS members since al-Baghdadi's death in a house a few miles from the Turkish border in an area where the Turkish armed forces operate.

Officials published photographs of three people they identified as al-Baghdadi's elder sister, Rasmiya Awad, 65, her husband and a daughter-in-law, and said they had been detained by Turkish security forces several days ago. The three were living along with five children in a trailer near the town of Azaz, officials said.

"Much dark propaganda against Turkey has been circulating to raise doubts about our resolve against Daesh," Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish presidency's director of communications, said on Twitter, using another name for ISIS.

"We have been leading in the fight against terrorism in all its forms."

Turkey has captured 287 foreign ISIS members in Syria, including children, since beginning its military operation in the country last month, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Monday.

Other officials have said that 54 of those are Turkish citizens.