“Yes, he was wounded in al-Baaj near the village of Umm al-Rous on 18 March with a group that was with him,” Hisham Hashimi, an Iraqi adviser on the ISIL, told the Guardian.
Another source in Iraq with connections to ISIL militants said that though al-Baghdadi’s injuries were at first life-threatening, his state of health has improved. He has not yet returned to daily command of the group, the source added.
An unnamed western diplomatic spokesman confirmed the date and place of the attack. He stated that the US-led coalition airstrike targeted several local ISIL leaders and killed three men, the Guardian reported.
Al-Baghdadi is believed to have been spending time in the Iraqi village of al-Baaj, near the Syrian border.
Al-Baaj, a predominantly Sunni area, has long been outside the control of the Iraqi government, and was considered a stronghold for jihadists since 2004.
Islamic State (ISIL) is a radical Sunni group, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The ISIL has seized large areas in Iraq and Syria and have declared a caliphate on territories under their control.
A US-led coalition of over 60 nations is currently carrying out airstrikes against ISIL positions in Iraq and neighboring Syria.
