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S<RIA - ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was wounded in an airstrike in May last year and had to relinquish control of the terror group for up to five months because of his injuries, according to several US officials who spoke exclusively to CNN.
US intelligence agencies have assessed with a high degree of confidence that the world’s most wanted man was near Raqqa, Syria in May when the missile struck, the US officials said. Their assessment is based on reports from ISIS detainees and refugees in Northern Syria that emerged months after the airstrike, the officials added.
Baghdadi’s injuries were not considered life-threatening but they did mean he couldn’t continue to command the daily operations of the group. At the time, ISIS was about to lose control of the Iraqi city of Mosul and its so-called capital Raqqa had been nearly encircled by US-backed forces. It is unclear whether Baghdadi was hit in a targeted attack or if he was ³collateral damage.” It’s also unclear who fired the missile. US officials do not know the exact date of the strike so are unsure if a Coalition aircraft was involved, or whether Baghdadi’s injury was the result of a Russian missile.
³There have been isolated strikes by Russians in Raqqa, but as there’s no timeline to it, we don’t know if it’s ours,” a US official said. (CNN)