ISIS leader Baghdadi alive but badly hurt, say jihadists

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is alive but badly injured, according to captured jihadists.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is hiding in the Jazeera region of Syria, intelligence reports say.

The leader of Islamic State and its self-styled caliphate, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is alive but was so badly injured in an air strike last year that he was unable to run the organisation for five months, according to captured jihadists.

American and Iraqi officials quoted by Iraqi media and CNN said that Baghdadi was wounded in May. They said that the information was gleaned from ISIS captives being interrogated after they were caught as the so-called caliphate began to collapse.

“We have irrefutable information and documents from sources within the terrorist organisation that Baghdadi is still alive and hiding,” said Abu Ali al-Basri, head of the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s intelligence and counter-terrorism department.

He added that Baghdadi was hiding in the Jazeera region, a desert area of the central Euphrates Valley in eastern Syria close to the border with Iraq. It is one of three enclaves in Syria still controlled by Islamic State.

It also emerged yesterday from US counter-terrorism officials that American special forces and FBI agents operating in Syria are hunting for graves where murdered Western hostages have been buried.

Baghdadi’s whereabouts have been a mystery for months, as Islamic State’s former main capitals, Mosul in northern Iraq and Raqqa in eastern Syria, fell to US-supported forces in July and October respectively.

In June Russia and the Syrian regime said that they thought Baghdadi had been killed in a Russian air strike on May 28. At the time American officials said that they had no evidence to corroborate the report, and the Russians did not reveal the source of their information.

The new information, which seems to have caught US officials by surprise, raises the possibility that the Russian strike at least hit the target. However, in confirming the story to CNN, they said that it was still unclear when and by whom Baghdadi, 46, had been hit.

His voice was last heard in an audio clip posted online in September, when he made reference to events since his supposed death. The officials said that his injuries were so severe that he had had to give up daily operational control of the organisation. However, they believe that he has now at least partially recovered.

The Iraqi officials said that Baghdadi had been treated in a hospital in an area under Islamic State control. Mr Basri said that he had several broken bones, was unable to walk without assistance and also had diabetes.

Colonel Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the US-led coalition against Islamic State, said: “We do not have clear evidence that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed, so we will assume he is still alive.”

He added that efforts were continuing to trace Islamic State leaders, including Baghdadi. “The coalition has been successful at ripping apart ISIS networks and going after their leadership. Those efforts have not ceased.”

Iraq released the news of Baghdadi’s apparent survival as it considered the future of a country that has been torn apart.

The Iraqi government told a conference in Kuwait of potential donors and investors that it needed $112 billion to rebuild destroyed towns and cities, particularly Mosul, the western half of which was flattened in the last few weeks of the battle to drive out ISIS militants.

It said that there was a particular need for housing as well as repairs to Mosul airport. It also wants to develop jobs as an alternative to the oil industry.

The Times