ISIL leader targeted: US forces raid house in northern Syria
There have been questions about al-Baghdadi’s grip on power and reports of dissent within the group’s leadership.
In July 2014, the world first saw Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – an Iraqi whose real name is Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al Badri – as he declared himself “Caliph” of a so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS).
It is not clear what role he played in planning the group’s operations and recruiting fighters, but at its strongest, the group controlled 88,000 sq km of territory stretching from western Syria to eastern Iraq.
By March 2019, ISIL had lost its last stronghold in Syria, and now the US has conducted a raid in northwestern Syria targeting the enigmatic leader.
There are conflicting reports on whether al-Baghdadi was killed.
Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reports.