The fate of the Islamic State’s top leader is uncertain after airstrikes in western Iraq over the weekend.
Iraqi officials said Sunday that an airstrike had wounded Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s top leader. The Pentagon so far isn’t confirming the assessment, telling the Associated Press it has no immediate information about the state of al-Baghdadi’s health.
A spokesman for U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to a Washington Examiner inquiry, but told al Arabiya earlier Sunday that U.S.-led airstrikes targeted ISIS leaders near their northern hub of Mosul late Friday. The spokesman did not confirm whether Baghdadi was killed or wounded.
Iraq’s defense minister, Khalid al-Obeidi, issued a statement on his Facebook page Sunday saying that al-Baghdadi was hit during a meeting with extremists Friday night in Mosul and is wounded. He also said the airstrike killed al-Baghdadi’s top deputy, Abu Muslim al-Turkmani.
There’s both a timing and location discrepancy in the reports of al-Baghdadi’s wounding.
The Associated Press on Sunday afternoon, citing Iraq’s Defense and Interior ministries, reported that al-Baghdadi was hit and was wounded during a meeting Saturday with militants in the town of Qaim in Iraq’s western Anbar province.
In fall 2011, U.S. authorities placed a $10 million bounty on al-Baghdadi, believed to be in his early 40s, for information leading to his capture or death.
He is responsible for elevating the group from the Iraqi branch of al Qaeda to an independent and well-organized fighting force aimed at taking over the region and establishing al-Baghdadi as the ruling caliphate over all Muslims.
Department of Defense records say al-Baghdadi was held by U.S. forces in Iraq from February until December 2004, along with other future ISIS leaders. Other newspaper reports say he was held for far longer, from 2005 to 2009.
