12 Jun ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Reportedly ‘Killed In Massive Airstrike’

Early in June, reports stated that the Islamic State had surrendered the key town of Baaj in north-west Iraq. Baaj is believed to be a hideout of the terrorist group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and had been under Islamist control for 14 years. Shia militia forces are thought to have entered the area freely after the last remaining Islamic State fighters fled the region.

According to the Popular Mobilisation Front, an umbrella organisation for pro-government paramilitaries that is dominated by Iran-backed Shia militias, this entry marked the “total liberation” of the Baaj district.The Front’s fighters replaced Isis flags and banners with Iraqi ones across this region of northwestern Iraq, claiming that “the Iraqi flag has been hoisted above its buildings”.

The Guardian also reported that a source had seen Isis’s leader Baghdadi in Bukamal – a Syrian city near the border with Iraq – earlier in the year. The source described his appearance as thin and stooped and claimed that Baghdadi was travelling with a small security detail in a convoy of four cars. He reportedly only spent minutes in public before being escorted away. This is of interest because Baghdadi was previously believed to have spent most of the past three years in Baaj under the protection of several groups sympathetic to the cause of the Islamic state.

The fall of Baaj, supposed fleeing of Baghdadi and his soldiers, as well as increased cautiousness of Islamic state security were taken by some observers as signs that the Isis caliphate was finally wavering. This spurred a renewed interest in  locating Baghdadi. In addition to moving out of Baaj, Baghdadi has also been sighted in Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Isis caliphate in Syria. Now, reports from Syrian state television are claiming that an airstrike on the city of Raqqa (also known as ar Raqqah) has killed Baghdadi.

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