Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has
reportedly been "critically wounded" in a US-led air strike on a
gathering of leaders of the Islamic terror group in the western Iraqi
border town of al-Qaim.
Reuters news agency quoted two witnesses as saying the air strike targeted a house where senior Isis officers were meeting. Witnesses said Isis fighters had cleared a hospital of patients so the wounded could be treated and used loudspeakers to order residents to donate blood.
U.S. Central Command confirmed in a statement that U.S-led air strikes targeted leaders of the terrorist group near their northern Iraqi hub of Mosul late Friday, but did not confirm whether Baghdadi was killed.
Read more: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi profile: The mysterious leader of Isis – and why he is called the 'invisible sheikh'
Separately, Coalition air forces struck targets just outside Mosul, destroying a convoy of Isis vehicles.
Meanwhile, a wave of car bombs killed dozens of people across Iraq on Saturday. At least 48 people died in a series of bombings in the capital Baghdad. And on Friday a British-born suicide bomber targeted an Iraqi military convoy north of Baghdad, killing himself and eight others.
US President Barack Obama has since ordered the deployment of up to 1,500 more soldiers to support Iraqi forces. This could bring the overall figure of American troops in the country to 3,100.
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