A convoy of ISIS militants from Syria, reportedly including Baghdadi, traveled to Iraq to meet with their Iraqi and foreign leaders in order to discuss the group’s military defeats in Mosul and to select a successor to Baghdadi, a statement from the Iraqi military detailed.
“The intelligence agency carefully watched a motorcade of the ISIS caliphate leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi travel from Syrian territory until they reached Iraq,” reads a statement issued by the Iraqi war media office on Monday.
“Relying on intelligence information, Iraqi fighter jets targeted a meeting of the ISIS leaders in Anbar. The operation resulted in the death of 13 ISIS leaders, 40 fighters, and 24 suicide bombers,” the statement detailed.
According to the statement, on February 9, a convoy of vehicles, including Baghdad, set off from the outskirts of Raqqa and stopped in the region of Suyaea near albu-Kamal, where they changed cars.
“They swapped their vehicles with pickup trucks in albu-Kamal region the day after. Their motorcade then stopped in Ubaidi region where the caliphate headquarters is based.”
The Iraqi air force carried out airstrikes on Saturday on four sites in the area of their meeting in Anbar province in an operation conducted jointly with the Joint Special Operations Command.
Coalition spokesperson Col. John Dorrian, speaking to Rudaw TV, could not confirm if Baghdadi was hit in the Iraqi airstrike, but, he said, the ISIS leader’s life is in great peril. There is a $25 million reward on his head and a lot of people looking for him. “He is going to have to hide and he has no chance of being able to be successful in doing that for too much longer.”
Sixty-four militants were killed, as well as 13 ISIS leaders who were named in the military's statement. The majority had come from Syria and included many foreign fighters.
Among the ISIS leaders killed are Abu Janat al-Rawi, in charge of security, Abu Zaid, head of media, and Abu Asid, leader in Tal Afar.
