Eight senior ISIS figures killed in Iraqi air strike – not Baghdadi

The statement said the building hosting the meeting was also struck.

“Iraqi air forces have bombed the convoy of the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi while he was heading to Karabla to attend a meeting with Daesh commanders”, the Iraqi military said in a statement. A U.S. military official in Baghdad said there were no indications Baghdadi was killed or injured during the operation.

New information says that the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, probably was not hit in the Iraqi airstrike carried out on Sunday, according to The Independent.

The ministry has been firm with its reports, but the Pentagon insists that the claims still need to be confirmed and celebration should be saved for when there is solid evidence that al-Baghdadi has been destroyed. In November, Iraqi officials said he had been wounded in an airstrike. “After assessing all information we received from our sources, it’s more likely that the convoy we struck was not carrying Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi”, a senior Iraqi security official said. While the ministry is not yet sure if Baghdadi survived the attack, the statement said a “large number” of the big boss’ bodyguards were also killed. Interestingly, however, the social media mouthpieces of IS are responding to news of this attack not with denials about the attack or confirmations of al-Baghdadi’s survival but with displays of defiant bravado, claiming that the “caliphate” established by IS will outlive al-Baghdadi so the conceivable death of their leader will not impede the group’s progress or mission. “According to Karabla residents, Baghdadi and a few other leaders were taken to a hospital in Albu Kamal”, a town directly across the Syrian border, a few 15 kilometres (10 miles) away.

The US-led coalition, which has carried out more than 7,000 air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq since August 2014 – including dozens every week in Anbar – has not commented on the reported strike against Baghdadi.