Islamic State leader Baghdadi 'seriously wounded in air strike'
The leader of Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been seriously wounded in an air strike in western Iraq, sources say.
A source in Iraq with connections to the terror group revealed that Baghdadi suffered serious injuries during an attack by the US-led coalition in March.
The source said Baghdadi's wounds were at first life-threatening, but he has since made a slow recovery. He has not, however, resumed day-to-day control of the organisation.
Baghdadi's wounding led to urgent meetings of IS leaders, who initially believed he would die and made plans to name a new leader.
Two separate officials - a western diplomat and an Iraqi adviser - separately confirmed the strike took place on March 18 in the al-Baaj district of Nineveh, close to the Syrian border. There had been two previous reports in November and December of Baghdadi being wounded, though neither was accurate.
The diplomat confirmed an air strike on a three-car convoy had taken place on that date between the village of Umm al-Rous and al-Qaraan. The attack targeted local IS leaders and is believed to have killed three men. Officials did not know at the time Baghdadi was in one of the cars.
Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi official who advises Baghdad on IS, said: "Yes, he was wounded in al-Baaj near the village of Umm al-Rous on March 18 with a group that was with him."
Baghdadi is understood to have been spending much of his time in al-Baaj, about 320km west of the IS stronghold of Mosul. "He chose this area because he knew from the war that the Americans did not have much cover there," said a source privy to some of Baghdadi's movements.
Al-Baaj, a Sunni tribal area, has long remained outside of state control even under ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime, and was considered a safe haven for jihadists from 2004 onwards.
Residents have long used smuggling networks to import goods from nearby Syria and to other parts of Sunni areas of Iraq. Al-Qaeda in Iraq and all its subsequent incarnations, including IS, had largely unfettered access to the routes until al-Baaj became a focus of US surveillance.
Baghdadi had at least one earlier brush with death when US jets attacked a two-car convoy on the outskirts of Mosul on December 14. His close aide Auf Abdul Rahman al-Efery was killed when an air strike hit one of the cars. Baghdadi was believed to be in the second car, which was not hit.
In recent months, air strikes have been increasingly effective in targeting the IS leadership. Baghdadi's deputy, Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, and the head of the group's military operations in Iraq were killed in December.
