Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self appointed ruler of the Islamic Caliphate (a.k.a. ISIS), on Sunday night fled Iraq to Syria in a yellow taxi, the Iraqi Media News Agency reported.
“After Iraqi troops invaded Qaim, Baghdadi became aware that his presence in Rawa threatens his life,” the news agency reported.
While fleeing for his life, Baghdadi reportedly ordered the remaining ISIS fighters in Qaim to “resume fighting,” the agency added, but “they let him down and escaped in their private cars to Syria.”
According to a source cited by the agency, Baghdadi “insisted on taking a yellow cab in order not to leave doubts that his was a civilian vehicle.”
Last October, the US admitted it believes Baghdadi was still alive – after several reports, some of them by Russian officials, of his sustaining mortal injuries in various aerial bombings.
ISIS fighters have been fleeing Qaim, in western Anbar, en masse, on their way to al-BuKamal in Syria, after several of their chiefs have either escaped or been killed in airstrikes by the US-led Coalition.
According to Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, Qaim has been liberated “in record time,” in a campaign that began in late October.
