Posted on 04/27/2015 12:27:15 PM PDT by drewh
The enigmatic chief of Islamic State jihadist group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, Radio Iran has reported on Monday.
Earlier, a Guardian report quoting sources with inside knowledge of the group reported that al-Baghdadi was severely injured in a US-led coalition air strike in March.
According to that report, al-Baghdadi was inujred at al-Baaj district of Nineveh, close to the Syrian border. It also said he was making a slow recovery and was out of his day-to-day control of the jihadist group.
Al-Baghdadi, believed to be in his 40s, had a $10 million US bounty on his head. Since taking the reins of the Islamic State in 2010, he had transformed it from a local branch of al-Qaida into an independent transnational military force, positioning himself as perhaps the pre-eminent figure in the global jihadist community.
ISIS suffered a series of major setbacks in the recent months with many of its top commanders being killed or severely injured.
Recently, a top Iraqi military commander Lieutenant General Abdul Amir al Shammari told Sky News that his forces had killed "more than 250 terrorists in the past few days".
He said this had been achieved with assistance from the Iraqi air force, military helicopters and coalition air strikes. "The coalition strikes provided cover for our troops to push forward."
Under the leadership of al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State, which called itself as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) earlier, had gained ground across northern and western Iraq in a lightning advance in June and July last year, causing several of Iraq's army and police divisions to fall into disarray.
It had carried out thousands of public executions using brutal methods and implemented strict Islamic law in areas they captured, which sent shockwave across the global community.
Having said that, until we destroy the intellectual underpinning of world terrorism (within the Quran and Hadith), there will be plenty of people willing to continue their murderous reign of barbarism.
Agreed.
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Its a little simpler to destroy the financial underpinnings.
That means kill the price of oil. That’s how reagan took down the old soviet union.
The final death of oil prices will happen but not in the next couple years. It won’t start for another 5 years. However, starting about 2020—alternatively fueled vehicles will take ever larger bites out of total worldwide demand for oil.
When that happens, there won’t be the vast amounts of money floating around the middle east to fuel the ambitions of the locals.
He is not just merely dead but he is most sincerely dead.
I’m glad that ISIS spared no expense and provides the Caliph with the same gold-plated, Cadillac, health care and retirement plan enjoyed by countless “Number 3 leaders of al Qaeda.”
I’ll even forgive them if it is not compliant with Obamacare.
If Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is not yet enjoying his well-deserved reward of eternal torment and damnation, may the continued decline of his health be as slow, painful, and humiliating as possible.
Congratulations to Abu Alaa Afri. You’ve got next. The HR Department of ISIS notes that your premiums are paid in full. Do not ask for whom the airstrike drops, it is dropping on you.
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