A senior Iraqi lawmaker disclosed details of a plan to assassinate the ISIL’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his escape in the last moments.
“An intelligence force affiliated to the Iraqi government was due to carry out the assassination plan on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIL leader, in Mosul, the capital city of Nineveh province,” Nahlah al-Hababi told FNA on Wednesday.
“The Iraqi intelligence forces staged unique operations to assassinate Baghdadi but he fled the scene in the last minutes,” she added.
The London-based Guardian newspaper had reported in May that Baghdadi remains incapacitated due to suspected spinal damage and is being treated by two doctors who travel to his hideout from the group’s stronghold of Mosul two months after being injured in a US air strike in Northwestern Iraq.
Three sources close to the ISIL confirmed that Baghdadi’s wounds could mean he would never again lead the terrorist group.
The Syrian army killed a commander of Nur Eddin Zanki Takfiri terrorist group in Aleppo province, Northern Syria.
Reports from Aleppo said that the Syrian army intensified its offensives on the Takfiri terrorist groups in the Western parts of the city.
The bloody clashes between the army and Ansar al-Sharia coalition comprising 13 terrorist groups led by the Al-Nusra Front left tens of militants dead and dozens more injured.
The clashes erupted after an Al-Nusra Front suicide bomber intended to explode a bomb-laden vehicle in Jamiat al-Zahra district of Aleppo, but the Syrian army prevented the suicide bomber from accomplishing his mission.
Also in the part 24 hours, two senior ISIL leaders fighting against the government forces in Deir Ezzur province, Eastern Syria, fled to neighboring Turkey after stealing a large sum of cash from the Takfiri terrorist group’s treasury.
“Ons al-Motlaq and Ahmed Rahoum fled to Turkey from Deir Ezzur after stealing large amounts of cash from the ISIL treasury,” a local source said.
Media reports said on Tuesday that Turkey has redeployed part of its army behind Syria’s borders to help the terrorist group take control of Aleppo.
“Threats and military movements by Turkey near the Syrian borders is aimed at rendering help to the al-Nusra Front to conquer Aleppo,” the Arabic-language Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported.
The newspaper wrote that all pro-Turkey terrorist groups, specially the Al-Nusra Front and its allies, are in the same boat with Ankara to attack Aleppo as they supported attacks on Idlib and Jisr al-Shaghour.
Also in the past 24 hours, the Syrian Kurdish fighters took more than 10 villages North of Raqqa city from the ISIL terrorists.
At least 78 ISIL terrorists were killed since Sunday night, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
But, on Tuesday, the terrorist group was still in control of Ain Issa, the Britain-based Observatory said. The town, 50 km (30 miles) North of Raqqa city, was seized by ISIL terrorists from the Kurdish YPG forces in an attack on Monday.
The Observatory said YPG forces regained control of 11 villages Northeast of Ain Issa.
The YPG has made significant gains against ISIL in Raqqa province in recent weeks, seizing Tel Abyad at the Turkish border on June 15 before advancing South to Ain Issa.
The YPG captured Ain Issa on June 23.
Also on Tuesday, the Syrian government forces targeted positions of the Takfiri militants in many areas across the country, killing and injuring large groups of them.
The Syrian army targeted hideouts of terrorists of al-Nusra Front and other terrorist groups in Hreitan town, located on Aleppo-Turkey road, the main arms and ammunition supply line for terrorists, leaving a group of the Takfiri militants dead and injured.
A number of terrorists were also killed and their weapons and vehicles were destroyed in al-Mansoura village and in the vicinity of the Scientific Research Center.
The army also inflicted heavy losses on terrorists in al-Atareb and Khan al-Assal at the Southwestern countryside of Aleppo.