The US-led military coalition against the Islamic State group bombed its leaders while they were in a meeting in northern Iraq.
The US military announced on Saturday that the area around Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, which is under the control of the Islamic State, was bombed a day earlier, while, according to Washington, a meeting of the leaders of that ultra-radical organization was in progress. However, the US "is unable to confirm whether the head of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, was at the meeting." Unconfirmed reports carried by Arab TV stations on Saturday said that the self-proclaimed "Caliph" Baghdadi was wounded or even killed.
Since August, almost every day in Iraq, and since the end of September in Syria, the international coalition has been bombing the armed groups of the Islamic State, which control large parts of the territory of those two countries. Under the direct threat of the Islamic State, the Iraqi government on Saturday welcomed the deployment of an additional 1.500 US military advisers, which the White House announced on Friday. In addition to the US, "several" other countries in the international coalition will participate in training the Iraqi army, the Pentagon said. With 1.500 additional troops, the US will have more than 3.000 people in Iraq, where its military left in December 2011.
The rapid offensive of the Islamic State army, which began in June, brought the defeat of the Iraqi forces; the police and army abandoned their positions, leaving behind weapons and many US military vehicles. Backed by coalition bombardment since August 8, Iraqi forces have recovered somewhat, but are still struggling to retake territory captured by Sunni extremist groups, terrorizing the population. The United States wants to crush the Islamic State, which it considers "the best-financed terrorist organization in the world." Oil exploitation and its sale on the black market brings that organization about a million dollars a day, Washington estimated.
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