Category: US air strike

ISIS, US air strike

Claims ISIS ‘Caliph’ al-Baghdadi critically injured in US air strike
Unsubstantiated ... Middle Eastern news service Al Arabiya is reporting the self-declared

Unsubstantiated … Middle Eastern news service Al Arabiya is reporting the self-declared caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been ‘critically injured’ in an air strike. Source: Getty Source: Getty Images

MIDDLE Eastern media is reporting the leader of the Islamic State, self-proclaimed Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been critically wounded in an air strike.

The Al Arabiya news channel is reporting sources have told it that the Caliph was “critically wounded” during an air attack in the Iraqi town of al-Qaim.

US officials have stated a convoy of up to 10 armed Islamic State vehicles, believed to be carrying Islamic State commanders, was hit yesterday Australian time.
“We cannot confirm if ISIL (Islamic State) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was among those present,” a US military statement reads.

Islamic State affiliated Twitter accounts have rejected the reports.

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However, the US has confirmed it conducted a series of airstrikes targeting Islamic State leaders near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The airstrikes yesterday destroyed a convoy of 10 armed trucks, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe military operations.

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Iraqi news services report an Anbar Province politician as saying the strike was conducted against a meeting of IS leaders in al-Qaim, which is west of the regional capital of Anbar.

Dozens of deaths and injuries have been reported.

“(It) caused severe confusion among ISIS members who then cut off all roads in Qaim in order to transport their wounded to the hospital that was packed with the wounded and body parts,” member of parliament Mohammed al-Karbouli reportedly said.

Reuters news agency quoted two witnesses as saying an air strike targeted a house where senior ISIS officers were meeting, near al-Qaim.

Witnesses said ISIS fighters had cleared a hospital so that their wounded could be treated. ISIS fighters then used loudspeakers to urge residents to donate blood.

Unconfirmed reports also state several other regional Islamic State leaders were killed or injured in the blasts

Al-Baghdadi has declared himself the caliph, or supreme leader, of the vast areas of territory in Iraq and Syria under IS control.

This is not the first time al-Baghdadi has been declared dead. In September social media circulated images of a body said to be that of the caliph. Then, as now, his death was supposed to have been the result of an air strike.

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AUS-led coalition, which includes Australia, has been launching airstrikes on Islamic State militants and facilities in Iraq and Syria for months, as part of an effort to give Iraqi forces the time and space to mount a more effective offensive.

The Islamic State had gained ground across northern and western Iraq in a lightning advance in June and July, causing several of Iraq’s army and police divisions to fall into disarray.

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Yesterday, US President Barack Obama authorized the deployment of up to 1500 more American troops to bolster Iraqi forces, including into Anbar province, where fighting with Islamic State militants has been fierce.

The plan could boost the total number of American troops in Iraq to 3100. There now are about 1400 US troops in Iraq, out of the 1600 previously authorized.

“What is needed from the US is that it should work to bring the Iraqi people together,” said Hamid al-Mutlaq, a Sunni Iraqi lawmaker. “America, and others, should not become an obstacle that hinder the Iraqis’ ambitions for a free Iraqi decision that serves the interests of Iraq”

ATTACKS CONTINUE

Meanwhile yesterday, a series of bombings in and around the capital Baghdad killed at least 43 people, with the deadliest blast hitting the city’s sprawling Shiite district of Sadr City, where a car bomb tore through a commercial area, killing 11 people and wounding 21.

Besides the Sadr City bombing, at least nine people were killed and another 18 wounded when a car bomb tore through a commercial street lined with restaurants in the southeastern Baghdad neighborhood of al-Amin. Two car bombs also killed eight people and wounded 16 on a commercial street in Baghdad’s southwestern Amil neighborhood, police officials said.

A car bomb also detonated on a commercial street in Baghdad’s busy central al-Karadah district, killing seven people and wounding at least 21, officials said. In Yousifiya, a town just south of the capital, two people were killed and four wounded in a bombing near a fruit and vegetable market. Another car bomb struck Zafaraniya in southeastern Baghdad, killing six and wounding 13, officials said.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All police and hospital officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.