1st LD: Iraqi air force hits convoy of IS top leader
Xinhua, October 11, 2015 Adjust font size:
Iraqi air forces on Sunday struck a convoy of Islamic State (IS) top leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the western province of Anbar, but Baghdadi's fate is unknown, the military said.
"The Iraqi air forces managed to bomb the convoy of criminal terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi while he was travelling in Karabla area near the town of Qaim on border with Syria," a statement said.
It said that Baghdadi was heading to attend a meeting in Karabla area when the attack occurred. It is unknown whether Baghdadi was killed or wounded.
A provincial security source confirmed the attack, saying the airstrike was based on intelligence reports, and that at least 15 IS militants were killed in the attack, many being senior IS leaders.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the nickname of Ibrahim Awad al-Badri, is the leader of the Islamic State that has spread from Syria and Iraq to Libya, Yemen, and even Afghanistan.
In 2014, al-Baghdadi declared himself the caliph, or religious ruler of the new rule system of caliphate. It's seen as an attempt to revive the system of Islamic religious ruling which ended about 100 years ago with the fall of the Ottoman Empire during the World War I. Endit