Fugitive Isil leader ‘less important by the day’

ABU BAKR AL-BAGHDADI, the fugitive Isil leader, is becoming less important by the day, a senior Army officer has said.

In 2014, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) swept across vast swathes of Syria – seizing Raqqa, before spreading into northern and western Iraq, capturing Mosul and even advancing to the edges of Baghdad.

Since then, there have been concerted international efforts to destroy the extremists.

Maj Gen Chris Ghika, the outgoing top UK commander in the Us-led international anti-isil coalition, said if the location of Baghdadi was known, something would be done about it.

“Although he holds an iconic status – because he was the person who stood on the balcony of the al-nuri Mosque in 2014 (and declared the caliphate) – actually, we don’t really see him as somebody of great importance,” he said.

With a $25 million (£19 million) US government bounty on his head, Maj Gen Ghika said as a leader, Baghdadi “left his people to fight and die”.

Weeks after Isil was ousted from its last sliver of territory in Syria in March, Baghdadi, visibly older and heavier, appeared in an 18-minute video clip – rallying his followers.

Managing to evade capture for years, with recent rumours he has appointed someone to take over from him, Maj Gen Ghika said: “I think he gets less important by the day.

“I am pretty confident Baghdadi will be killed or caught during this campaign.”

Pressed on how many fighters remain, Maj Gen Ghika, who has now returned home after 13 months in the Middle East, said that was a difficult thing to quantify.

Warning how the Islamists are still a danger, he said the efforts to eradicate the group were far from over – with about 10,000 Isil fighters currently in Iraq and Syria and the group still having access to weaponry and money.