Wounded IS group chief al-Baghdadi alive in Syria, says Iraqi official

An Iraqi interior ministry official said the Islamic State group’s head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is alive and being treated at a field hospital in Syria after being wounded in an air strike.

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“We have irrefutable information and documents from sources within the terrorist organisation that al-Baghdadi is still alive and hiding” in Syria‘s northeastern Jazira region, said intelligence and counterterrorism department head Abu Ali al-Basri, quoted Monday in the government daily As-Sabah.

IS retains a significant presence in the desert plains of northeastern Syria’s Hasakeh province despite having lost most of its cross-border “caliphate” which once also covered a third of neighbouring Iraq.

Basri said that Baghdadi was suffering from “injuries, diabetes and fractures to the body and legs that prevent him from walking without assistance”.

Source:Franve24.com