Al Baghdadi Dies From Wounds Sustained in Air Strike

News Brief — April 26, 2015

The leader of Islamic State has reportedly died from wounds sustained during an air strike on the terror group.

Britain’s Guardian had previously reported that Bakr al-Baghdadi was seriously wounded in an air strike in western Iraq.

A source in Iraq with connections to the terror group revealed that Baghdadi suffered serious injuries during an attack by the US-led coalition in March. The source said Baghdadi’s wounds were at first life-threatening, but he has since made a slow recovery. He has not, however, resumed day-to-day control of the organisation.

Now it is being reported by Iran’s Fars News Agency that Baghdadi has died from his injuries.

According to Fars two local news agencies, Alghad Press and Al-Youm Al-Thamen (the 8th Day), as well as sources in the Iraqi city of Mosul, reported that:

Baghdadi died in an Israeli hospital in the occupied Golan Heights where he had been hospitalized for treatment after sustaining severe injuries during a joint attack of the Iraqi army and popular forces.

The sources added that al-Baghdadi has been declared by his Israeli physicians and surgeons as to be now “clinically dead”.

The terrorist leader was targeted in an airstrike in Western Iraq on March 18.

Al Baghdadi had originally been trained by the Mossad, according to Yasmina Haifi, a project leader for the Dutch National Cyber Security Centre.

Her claim was later substantiated by US National Security Agency documents. While the claim that Baghdadi had died in an Israeli hospital was earlier backed by UN observers who reported that Israel had been treating wounded Islamic State terrorists at a hospital in the Golan Heights.

Al-Youm Al-Thamen quoting intelligence sources said several videos of Al Baghdadi had been recorded to prove he was still alive, after an earlier air strike had nearly killed him.

It is thought that these videos will now be used to refute reports of Baghdadi’s death until the group can appoint a universally accepted new leader.