The leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is in poor health, and disagreements within the group were increasingly intense, said Rabah Ali Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, Al-Baghdadi's cousin and childhood friend, writes Al Jazeera Balkans today.
Al-Badri, who served in the Directorate of Agriculture of the Islamic State, made the claims during questioning before an anti-terrorist court in Baghdad.
Al-Badri clarifies that in his last meeting, which Al Jazeera says was in early 2018, Al-Baghdadi said he knew internal dissension was destroying the organization due to his disappearance.
When Al-Badri informed Al-Baghdadi about the infighting within the group over his disappearance, the Islamic State leader replied that he knew everything that was happening.
He also spoke about the coup attempt organized by Arab and foreign fighters of that organization, and that such things were mainly promoted by fighters from Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, claiming that there is no caliphate.
Al-Badri said such events had left their mark on Al-Baghdadi, who looked "tired and exhausted", adding that the Islamic State leader was in poor health and was recovering from an operation on his left ear in a Syrian town Al Bukamal.
The Supreme Judicial Council in Iraq published on its website the confession of Al-Badri, who appeared before the investigative court in Kark specializing in anti-terrorism.
A brother's warning
Al-Badri said during the confession that, despite his family ties with Al-Baghdadi and the position he held in that organization, he managed to meet Al-Baghdadi only once since the declaration of the Islamic caliphate in 2014, writes Al Jazeera.
After the Islamic State leader disappeared and stopped appearing, he received numerous warnings from al-Baghdadi's brother, who was his bodyguard and security chief, not to try to meet with him for fear that the security services would pursue al-Baghdadi and reveal his whereabouts, Al-Badri explained.
The only encounter took place after Al-Badri fled with his family from Iraq to the Syrian city of Al-Shafah (near the border with Iraq).
One day, Al-Badri says, Al-Baghdadi's brother, a bodyguard and a third person they did not know came and took him blindfolded to a small and simple house, which appears to be near the said place, where he met with Al-Baghdadi , who was "in the company of an Arab; it seems, a Saudi".
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