BEIRUT – The US-led coalition over the weekend targeted a group of Islamic State (ISIS) leaders outside Mosul, killing a number of them while speculation mounted that the jihadist group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been wounded in the strikes.
US Central Command spokesperson Colonel Patrick Ryder on Saturday confirmed that coalition jets had hit a “moving convoy” of 10 ISIS vehicles late Friday night.
“This strike demonstrates the pressure we continue to place on the [ISIS] terrorist network and the group's increasingly limited freedom to maneuver, communicate and command,” the US military spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s Interior Ministry announced that the coalition had bombed 10 vehicles outside Mosul, as well as a “gathering of ISIS commanders in Qaim along the Syrian border.”