US-led air strikes have targeted a gathering of Islamic State leaders in Iraq in a town near the Syrian border, the US military confirmed.
Photo: US-led air strikes reportedly targeted a gathering of Islamic State leaders, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is believed to have appeared in IS propaganda videos. (Photo: AFP/HO/al-Furqan Media)
The strikes, which destroyed a vehicle convoy of 10 Islamic State (IS) armed trucks late Friday, targeted a "gathering of leaders" near Mosul, US Central Command said.
Two witnesses said an air strike targeted a house where senior IS officers – possibly including the group's top commander, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – were meeting, near the western Iraqi border town of Al Qaim.
"We cannot confirm if ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was among those present," Central Command said in a statement using an alternative name for Islamic State.
"This strike demonstrates the pressure we continue to place on the ISIL terrorist network and the group's increasingly limited freedom to manoeuvre, communicate and command."
Witnesses said IS fighters had cleared a hospital so their wounded could be treated, and used loudspeakers to urge residents to donate blood.
Residents said there were unconfirmed reports Islamic State's local leader in the western Iraqi province of Anbar and his deputy were killed.
One US official said air strikes were carried out against a convoy near the northern city of Mosul, about 280 kilometres from Al Qaim, and against small IS units elsewhere, but could not confirm whether Baghdadi was at the gathering.
Jordanian daily newspaper Al-Hadath said dozens of people were killed and wounded in the strike in Al Qaim and Mr Baghdadi's fate was unclear.
Al Qaim and the neighbouring Syrian town of Albukamal are on a strategic supply route linking territory held by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
More US troops committed to Iraq
The latest strikes came as US president Barack Obama approved sending 1,500 more troops to Iraq, roughly doubling the number of US forces on the ground to advise and retrain Iraqis in their battle against Islamic State.
Photo: US-led air strikes continue to target the Islamic State group, across Iraq and Syria. (AFP/Aris Messinis)
Western and Iraqi officials said Iraq had to improve the performance of its security forces to eliminate the threat from the fundamentalist group, which wants to redraw the map of the Middle East.
The Iraqi prime minister's media office said the additional US trainers were welcome, but the move, five months after IS seized much of northern Iraq, was belated, state television reported.
The United States spent $25 billion on the Iraqi military during the US occupation that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, and triggered an insurgency that included Al Qaeda.
Washington wants Iraq's Shiite-led government to revive an alliance with Sunni tribesmen in Anbar province which helped US Marines defeat Al Qaeda.
Such an alliance would face a more formidable enemy in Islamic State, which has more fire power and funding.
Reuters
