With the third and final phase of Operation Roundup underway in Syria, the fate of the Islamic State as a governing caliphate seems sealed.
The last territory held by the “dead-enders” is about to fall, and that has many people wondering if the final prize will be the head of the notorious ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
At a briefing for reporters at the Pentagon, a British general in Baghdad gave a hint that the U.S.-led coalition may believe the elusive terrorist is holed up with the last of his fighters in a stretch of land near the Syrian border with Iraq.
“What we do expect to encounter is a hard core of ISIS fighters who have been digging in and preparing their battle space, holding civilians as human shields, and we fully expect to see a high proportion of foreign terrorist fighters who represent some of the biggest threats to our nations,” said British Maj. Gen. Felix Gedney, a deputy commander with the coalition.
Might that include Baghdadi, a reporter queried?
“It’s a question we are frequently asked,” Gedney said.
Baghdadi’s whereabouts have been a big unknown throughout the campaign to destroy ISIS, and U.S. commanders have repeatedly refused to speculate where he is at any particular time.
He was believed to have been in eastern Syria last year, near the city of Deir al-Zour, for a strategy session after the fall of Mosul, the group’s self-proclaimed capital in Iraq.
And in early July, ISIS announced on its social media accounts that Baghdadi’s young son, Huthaifa al-Badri, had been killed fighting Syrian government forces.
Baghdadi himself has been reported killed several times, including by the Russians who said he died in an airstrike that targeted a gathering of senior ISIS commanders near the Syrian city of Raqqa.
A Russian lawmaker was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the likelihood he was killed was close to 100 percent.
“I come back to the same answer I always give,” Gedney said. “When we find Baghdadi, the international press will be the first to know that we’ve found him and dealt with him.”
