Ludovica Iaccino – International Business Times June 16, 2017
Al Baghdadi. Click to enlarge
Russia is investigating whether one of its air strikes killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of Isis. The ministry of defence said that an air strike hit a meeting of Isis leaders in Raqqa, Syria, on 28 May.
“According to information that is being checked through various channels, Isis leader Ibrahim Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed as a result of the strike, was also present at the meeting,” the ministry said in a statement, quoted by Russian media on 16 June.
However, this is not the first time that Baghdadi, who has rarely made any public appearance since announcing the creation of Isis in 2014, has been reported dead or gravely injured.
In the most recent instance, Syrian state TV said on 11 June that Baghdadi had been killed after being caught in a heavy artillery barrage in Raqqa, which Isis captured in 2014.
In October 2016, reports claimed Baghdadi was in critical condition after he and three other Isis senior leaders had been poisoned.
In June 2016, Iraqi TV channel said Baghdadi had been wounded in a US air strike in northern Iraq. US and Iraqi officials later said they were not able to confirm the report. Later on that month, reports claimed Baghdadi had been killed in a coalition airstrike on Raqqa. According to some news outlets, the reports were fake.
The previous year, Moscow supported claims that Baghdadi had been injured by Iraqi forces. The Iraqi army said in October 2015 it had struck an Isis convoy in Anbar, Iraq, while Baghdadi was “heading to Karabla [central Iraq] to attend a meeting with Isis commanders”.
However, Iraqi security officials later told Reuters new information suggested “the convoy we struck was not carrying Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi”.
A report by The Guardian said in April 2015 that Baghdadi had been “seriously wounded” in a US-led coalition air strike in western Iraq in March. The report said it was initially thought he was not going to survive. Reports in May 2015 said the leader remained incapacitated.
It is thought Baghdadi (real name believed to be Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai) was born in Samarra, north of Baghdad, in 1971 and joined the insurgency that erupted in Iraq soon after the 2003 US-led invasion.
He emerged as the leader of AQI (al-Qaeda in Iraq) in 2010, after its former leaders were killed in an attack by US and Iraqi troops.
In 2013, al-Baghdadi released an audio statement in which he announced that AQI and Jabhat al-Nusra terror groups were officially merging under the name “Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham” aka Islamic State or Isis.
Baghdadi has the reputation of a highly organised and ruthless battlefield tactician who rarely appears in the media.
Under his command, Isis has released several videos and statements claiming responsibility for deadly attacks that have killed thousands of people.
Yep, and you can throw in the White Widow as well. Trump the media mogul who hires and fires his terrorist actors.
A timeline of the al-Baghdadi narrative:
2004 – Al-Baghdadi was in U.S. custody
2007 – Iraqi officials report the death of al-Baghdadi
2007 – U.S. Major General William Caldwell said it was not known who al-Baghdadi was or if he even existed
2007 – Brigadier-General Kevin Bergner told a news conference that al-Baghdadi did not exist at all
2009 – Reuters reports that Iraqi forces had captured al-Baghdadi
2010 – Al-Baghdadi is reported dead by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki from an airstrike
2012 – Al-Baghdadi is captured in Iraq
2014 – Al-Baghdadi made his only alleged public appearance in Mosul in June
2014 – Al-Baghdadi is reportedly killed by a U.S. airstrike in September
2014 – Al-Baghdadi is ‘critically wounded‘ from air strikes near Mosul in November
2015 – Al-Baghdadi is once again ‘seriously wounded‘ from a U.S. air strike near Nineveh
2016 – Al-Baghdadi is reportedly killed again by coalition air strikes in Raqqa
2017 – Al-Baghdadi is wounded from an airstrike and has to relinquish control of ISIS for five months
2017 – Al-Baghdadi is killed yet again by Russian airstrikes in Syria
2018 – Al-Baghdadi is ‘severely wounded‘ in an air raid
2019 – Al-Baghdadi allegedly appears in a video released by an Islamic State media group
2019 – Al-Baghdadi kills himself during U.S. raid
The Russian military has dismissed Trump’s al-Baghdadi speech as propaganda, while Iran’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, declared that the U.S. had simply destroyed its “own creature.”
http://www.renegadetribune.com/isis-leader-al-baghdadi-reported-dead-for-at-least-the-7th-time-in-12-years/