Iraq News

ISIS leader travels in east Syria with tight-knit group: Iraqi official

"Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is hiding in eastern Syria and moves around with only a small group of followers, including one of his sons, an Iraqi intelligence official said Wednesday (May 9th).

ISIS retains territory in the desert plains along the Iraqi frontier despite losing the vast bulk of its cross-border "caliphate" to various military offensives.

The senior Iraqi official said al-Baghdadi was in the Hajin, Shaddadi, Suwar and Markadah areas and "travels accompanied by four or five people, including his son and son-in-law", AFP reported.

"His movements are discreet and he never travels in a convoy," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Originally from Iraq, al-Baghdadi has been dubbed the "most wanted man on the planet" and the US is offering a $25 million reward for his capture.

The intelligence official said the noose was closing around the terror leader after Iraqi forces captured five top ISIS commanders in an unprecedented raid into Syria on March 24th.

"Officers from Iraqi intelligence entered Syrian territory and gained access to the zones controlled by ISIS," he said.

The five men had featured in ISIS execution videos filmed while the group ruled over vast swathes of Iraq, the official said.

One of those detained, former Syrian anti-government fighter Saddam al-Jamal, allegedly confessed to Iraqi forces that he had supplied ISIS with arms stolen from the Syrian army.

The official said 39 ISIS fighters had been killed in cross-border air raids by Iraqi forces in Syria over the past few weeks and that the group had seen a "sharp decrease" in numbers.

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