Refuting reports about Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi being injured, the Pentagon on Wednesday said it had “no reasons to believe” that the ISIS leader was present at the area in Western Iraq targeted by an air strike on March 18.
While a Guardian report on Tuesday suggested that the ISIS kingpin Baghdadi received serious ‘life-threatening’ injuries from an air strike on March 18 in the al-Baaj a district of Nineveh, near Syrian border, a Pentagon officer told the Daily Beast that the strike was not aimed at a “high-valued target” and they had no evidence to suggest that Baghdadi was injured.
“We have no reason to believe it was Baghdadi,” Army Colonel Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman told The Daily Beast.
According to yesterday’s report in the Guardian, Baghdadi was injured seriously in the strike and has not been able to recover enough so as to be able to oversee the daily affairs of the ISIS.
The report added that top ISIS leaders had hurtled to decide on a new name to lead the outfit as they thought Baghdadi would not live.
Earlier, last year in November, there were similar reports of Baghdadi being “seriously injured” in US-led air strikes, however they were not confirmed.
The ISIS overran a huge swathe of Iraq and Syria in June last year and established the so-called “Islamic State” across occupied areas and anointed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as its caliph.
Declaring the Caliphate, Baghdadi who rarely makes public appearances, appeared at a mosque in July, demanding all Muslims to pledge allegiance to him.
