There are conflicting reports tonight that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was hit in a US airstrike in western Anbar province.
Iraqi officials said the terror leader was injured.
The AP reported:
Iraqi officials said Sunday that the head of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was wounded in an airstrike in western Anbar province. Pentagon officials said they had no immediate information on such an attack or on the militant leader being injured.
Iraq’s Defense and Interior ministries both issued statements saying al-Baghdadi had been wounded, without elaborating, and the news was broadcast on state-run television Sunday night.
The reports came at a time when President Barack Obama said the U.S.-led coalition was in a position to start going on the offensive against the Islamic State militants.
Al-Baghdadi, believed to be in his early 40s, has a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. Since taking the reins of the group in 2010, he has transformed it from a local branch of al-Qaida into an independent transnational military force.
He has positioned himself as perhaps the pre-eminent figure in the global jihadi community. His forces have seized large parts of Syria and Iraq, killed thousands of people, beheaded Westerners and drawn the U.S. troops and warplanes back into the region, where Washington is leading a campaign of airstrikes by a multinational coalition.
A leading figure in ISIS said it did not happen.
#Exclusive: A high commander in the security forces of #ISIS in #Raqqa denies that #Baghdadi has been injured or killed.
— الرقة تذبح بصمت (@Raqqa_Sl) November 9, 2014
