Give this the standard 72 hr. waiting period it deserves.
ISIS leader al-Baghdadi ‘is wounded in air strike on command centre in Iraq’
Leader of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, adresses Muslim worshippers at a mosque in Mosul
- Iraqi TV reports al-Baghdadi wounded in air strike in north of country
- Al Sumariya TV says he and other IS leaders were wounded in air strike
- U.S.-led war on Islamic State has intensified this year
Reports have come in from an Iraqi TV channel that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been wounded in an air strike in northern Iraq.
Al Sumariya TV cited a local source in the northern province of Nineveh saying that Baghdadi and other Islamic State leaders were wounded on Thursday in a coalition air strike on one of the group’s command headquarters close to the Syrian border.
The channel has good connections with Shi’ite politicians and Iraqi forces involved in the battle against Islamic State. There have previously been reports that Baghdadi (real name Ibrahim al-Samarrai) was killed or wounded after proclaiming himself caliph of all Muslims two years ago.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, born 28th July 1971, is the leader of the jihadist militant organisation known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which controls territory in western Iraq, Syria and Libya
The ultra-hardline Sunni group is under increased pressure in both Iraq and Syria and the territory under its control has shrunk significantly since 2014, limiting the possibility for its leaders to move around or seek shelter.
Earlier this year, the U.S. announced an intensification of the war on Islamic State with more air strikes and more American troops on the ground to advise and assist allied forces.
The U.S.-led coalition has regularly flown raids out of Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, in an effort to kill and capture Islamic State leaders.
