ISIS Leader “Critically Wounded” In US Airstrikes, Al Arabiya Reports

While US authorities noted the airstrikes on a 10-vehicle convoy near Mosul, they could not confirm the identity of those killed.

  • *U.S. SAYS COALITION AIRCRAFT STRIKE IS LEADERS NEAR MOSUL: AFP
  • *U.S. OFFICIAL CONFIRMS AIRSTRIKES TARGETED IS LEADERS:REUTERS
  • *U.S. SAYS IT DESTROYED CONVOY OF 10 ISIS ARMED TRUCKS
  • *CONVOY ATTACK WAS LAST NIGHT IN IRAQ NEAR MOSUL
  • *U.S. SAYS ATTACK WAS AT SITE OF GATHERING OF ISIS LEADERS
  • *U.S. CAN’T CONFIRM IF ISIS LEADER ABU BAKR AL-BAGHDADI THERE
  • *U.S. SAYS IT HAS NO MORE INFORMATION RIGHT NOW ON AIRSTRIKES

 

As Reuters reports,

U.S. air strikes destroyed a moving, 10-vehicle Islamic State convoy near the Iraqi city of Mosul but U.S. officials said on Saturday it was unclear whether the group’s top commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was present at the time.

 

Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesman at the U.S. military’s Central Command, said the U.S. military had reason to believe that the convoy was the product of a gathering of Islamic State leaders. The convoy consisted of 10 Islamic State armed trucks.

*  *  *

But now, Al Arabiya reports

As Al-Arabiya reports,

The leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was “critically wounded” when a U.S.-led air strike targeted the western Iraqi border town of al-Qaim, tribal sources told Al Arabiya News Channel on Saturday.

 

U.S. Central Command confirmed in a statement that U.S.-led air strikes targeted ISIS leaders near their northern Iraqi hub of Mosul late Friday, without confirming whether Baghdadi was killed, AFP reported.

 

“This strike demonstrates the pressure we continue to place on the ISIL [ISIS] terrorist network and the group’s increasingly limited freedom to maneuver, communicate and command,” US Central Command said.

 

Anbar province MP Mohammad al-Karbuli told Al Arabiya News Channel that coalition aircraft had targeted a gathering of ISIS leaders in al-Qaim that led to the killing of tens of people and wounded.

 

Karbuli said chaos ensued the air raid with ISIS members scrambling to transport their wounded to al-Qaim hospital which was overwhelmed with the number of patients.

 

…

U.S. officials would not confirm or deny whether Baghdadi, the group’s overall leader, had been targeted, the agency said.

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