Kurdish forces capture leading French IS commander

Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria on Thursday announced the capture of French Islamic State group commander Adrien Guihal, known as the voice that claimed the 2016 jihadi attacks in France.

Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF] have said they captured Adrien Guihal, during a sweep last week.

"The SDF's intelligence services conducted an operation on May 19 that led to the capture of a group of IS jihadists led by Adrien Guihal, known as Abu Osama al-Faransi," the SDF said in a statement.

The SDF statement said Guihal was detained together with his wife, who was not identified.

Guihal is believed to among the most dangerous members in a French group of fighters in the Islamic State group.

French jihadis were among the largest foreign contingent of foreign fighters in IS, a group that once controlled large parts of Syria and Iraq.

A Kurdish-led fightback has seen IS territories reduce to a sliver of land in the Euphrates region and parts of Syria's eastern desert.

The Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF] have captured a number of foreign fighter during the campaign, most of whom have tried to smuggle themselves out of the country.

Among them were two of the so-called IS Beatles, a group of British jihadis responsible for the murder of foreign captives.

Kurdish forces have detained dozens of French IS members who have gone underground in recent months, including well-known figures such as Thomas Barnouin and Emilie Konig.

France witnessed a wave of major jihadi attacks in 2015 and 2016, when IS linked militants murdered scores of civilians.

Guihal claimed responsibility on behalf of IS for the July 2016 truck attack in Nice, as well as the double killings of two French police officials at their home in Magnanville, in a recording released by the jihadi group.

French newspaper Liberation reports that Guihal is a convert to Islam who studied Arabic in Egypt and was close to Fabien Clain, another French IS member who himself claimed responsibility for the November 2015 attacks in Paris.