Report: ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi nearly killed in airstrike
In March, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was seriously injured in an airstrike, and has yet to resume day-to-day control of the organization, sources tell The Guardian.
The strike took place in western Iraq on March 18, a source in Iraq said, and his wounds were life-threatening. Before al-Baghdadi made his slow recovery, concerned ISIS leaders thought he would die, and met to determine who would take his place.
A western diplomat gave The Guardian more details on the airstrike, which hit a three-car convoy. It took place between the villages of Umm al-Rous and al-Qaraan, and targeted three leaders from the area; at the time, no one knew that al-Baghdadi was in one of the vehicles. He has been spending most of his time in al-Baaj, 200 miles west of Mosul, because "he knew from the war that the Americans did not have much cover there," a source said. "From 2003 [the U.S. military] barely had a presence there. It was the one part of Iraq that they hadn't mapped out."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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