© AFP PhotoAn image grab taken from a propaganda video released on July 5, 2014 by al-Furqan Media allegedly shows the leader of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, aka Caliph Ibrahim, adressing Muslim worshippers in Mosul, Iraq
Iraqi Interior Ministry has confirmed that the leader of the ISIL Takfiri group, Ibrahim al-Samarrai aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been injured in the latest airstrikes by the US-led coalition.The ministry said on Sunday that several Takfiri militants were also killed in the air raids but did not provide any further details.
On Saturday, the US Central Command, which oversees its forces in the Middle East, said the anti-ISIL coalition had carried out a "series of airstrikes" late on Friday against a "gathering of ISIL leaders" near the Iraqi city of Mosul, a hub of the terrorist group's activities.
"We cannot confirm if (ISIL) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was among those present," said Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesman at US Central Command.
The airstrikes also targeted a convoy of ten ISIL armed trucks.
The announcement of the strikes came a day after US President Barack Obama authorized the deployment of up to 1,500 more American soldiers to Iraq to fight against the ISIL Takfiri militants.
The new deployment will take the total number of US military forces in the country to 3,100.
The ISIL terrorists are in control of large areas across eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq.
They have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, including public decapitations, against Iraqi communities such as Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians.
The Iraqi army has so far managed to make numerous gains in the fight against the ISIL militants, pledging to continue the battle against the extremist group.
Comment: According to an investigation by
Corbett Report alI ISIS 'leaders' have miraculous careers of imprisonments, deaths and resurrections, not to mention their ties to certain '
intelligence agencies'.
According to The Washington Post, General Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. Central Command's chief public affairs officer in Iraq stated in a 2004 internal CENTCOM briefing that "The Zarqawi PSYOP program is the most successful information campaign to date."
So it's best to take these reports with a grain of salt.
The group was then taken over by Ibrahim ibn Awwad ibn Ibrahim ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai, better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. This Baghdadi, too, has an uncertain background constructed from conflicting reports. Alleged to have been born in Samarra, Iraq, in 1971, an unverifiable internet biography claims he attained a PhD in Islamic studies at the Islamic University of Baghdad, and unidentified reports suggest he may have been a cleric at a mosque in Samarra during the American invasion in 2003. He was then captured and held as a civilian detainee by US Forces-Iraq at Camp Bucca before being granted an unconditional release on a recommendation from the Combined Review and Release Board. The Defense Department officially proclaims he was detained from February to December 2004, but Army Col. Kenneth King, the former commander of Camp Bucca,insists he was at the camp until 2009, when he was turned over to the Iraqi justice system after the camp's closure. He was announced as leader of the ISI in May 2010 and reported captured in December 2012, a claim that was immediately denied. He oversaw the expansion of the group into Syria in 2013 and was rumoured to have been killed in June 2014, but a rare video of him delivering a sermon at a mosque in Mosul appeared less than 24 hours later to quash the rumor. He was proclaimed Caliph Ibrahim and leader of all Muslims upon the establishment of the Islamic State caliphate on June 29, 2014.
Comment: According to an investigation by Corbett Report alI ISIS 'leaders' have miraculous careers of imprisonments, deaths and resurrections, not to mention their ties to certain 'intelligence agencies'. So it's best to take these reports with a grain of salt.