The smoke has yet to clear from reports this morning claiming that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was injured in an airstrike by Iraqi forces near Al Qaim. Some sources report that he was killed in the attack, while others suggest he has been dead for some time. Fog or war, and all that.
“Reports are numerous and impossible to confirm,” notes Weasel Zippers, adding:
If true, it poses the question about the video posted today on this blog and all over news media. Who the heck is the man pretending to be Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and if he is al-Baghdadi why does he look so different from photos of al-Baghdadi taken a few years earlier? [Ed. — For an explanation of this seeming conundrum, kindly refer to the comment below by reader Navysquid.]
According to Al Sumaria news, the representative of the International Parliament in Iraq, Dr. Haidar al-Shara said, in an interview that “The Iraqi security forces carried out an operation in the city of Qaim on the border with Syria based on accurate intelligence and with the help of the Air Force where the leader of ISIL, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was seriously injured.”
Shara added that “after being hit, al-Baghdadi, with a range of elements of his organization fled into Syrian territory because of its proximity to Qaim,” indicating that “al-Baghdadi might be killed as a result of the severity of his injuries.”
Word that Baghdadi had been seriously wounded in an attack but escaped to Syria came in an unverified report published yesterday by Iraqi News:
Al Sumaria, a representative of the International Parliament for Safety and Peace revealed, on Friday, the escape of the leader of the organization of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to Syria after he was seriously injured in a raid in the west of Anbar. IraqiNews.com has not verified this claim reported by Al Sumaria news.
According to Al Sumaria news, the representative of the International Parliament in Iraq, Dr. Haidar al-Shara said, in an interview that “The Iraqi security forces carried out an operation in the city of Qaim on the border with Syria based on accurate intelligence and with the help of the Air Force where the leader of ISIL, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi was seriously injured.”
Shara added that “after being hit, al-Baghdadi, with a range of elements of his organization fled into Syrian territory because of its proximity to Qaim,” indicating that “al-Baghdadi might be killed as a result of the severity of his injuries.”
According to Al Sumaria TV the Iraqi security sources speculated earlier today, Friday, that the injury of the leader of ISIL, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was incurred by aerial bombing carried out by Iraqi troops on Wednesday night, in Qaim in west of Anbar.
