WASHINGTON DC – The fate of the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed “caliph,” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, remained unknown after a series of coalition air strikes near Mosul that targeted a gathering of ISIS leaders near Mosul.
Unconfirmed reports said that the leader, who has a $10 million US bounty on his head, had been “critically wounded.”
Coalition jets carried out a "series of airstrikes" against "a gathering of ISIL leaders near Mosul," the US Central Command said, using another acronym for the jihadi group that occupies large parts of Iraq and Syria.
The statement said that a convoy of 10 armoured vehicles in ISIS hands also was destroyed in the raids.
"We cannot confirm if ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was among those present," CENTCOM spokesman Patrick Ryder said in a statement Saturday.
The news followed plans by US President Barack Obama to send in 1,500 additional troops in the war against the militants.
Al-Arabiya television quoted tribal sources as saying that al-Baghdadi had been “critically wounded,” while other reports said that dozens of ISIS leader had been killed or wounded in the raid.
