ISIL's Suspicous Worries about Post-Baghdadi Era Fueling Speculations about Leader's Death

Rasa - Informed Iraqi Sources in Nineveh Province disclosed that ISIL has started polling members to express their view about the fate of the terrorist cult once its notorious leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi dies, a move that has stirred growing speculations that Baghdad might be already dead.

News ID: 424105

Date: 05 October 2016 - 20:25

RNA - "The ISIL has started asking members to express their visions of future of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant if they come to find out that Al-Baghdadi has been killed in an air or ground assault in Iraq," the Arabic-language al-Sumeriya News channel quoted an informed local source in Nineveh province as saying on Wednesday.

The source said that ISIL's preachers who propagate for the terrorist group in mosques and different places have focused attention on the question, raising it in various places and on different occasions to see fighters' reactions.

The source said ISIL militants and sympathizers are taken by surprise as soon as they are asked the question, while a common feeling of worry is prevailing over the ranks of the terrorist cult.

"The ISIL terrorists are probably preparing the grounds for declaring the death of their leader that has become a growingly difficult job, specially after the terrorist group's recent defeats," the source added.

On Monday, local sources told the Iraqi media that al-Baghdadi had been reportedly poisoned along with his three aides after they had eaten food poisoned by unknown individuals.

Al-Sumeriya News cited a local source in the Northwestern Nineveh Province as saying that “accurate information” showed Baghdadi’s food had been poisoned by unknown individuals and the food was given to him in the Be’aaj district, Northwest of the Iraqi province of Nineveh near the Syrian border.

The source added that the four have been transferred to an unknown location under strict measures.

Numerous reports had indicated in the last one month that Al-Baghdadi and other top commanders of the terrorist cult have started evacuating Mosul in anticipation of the Iraqi army's massive attack to take back the city. Meantime, many reports have indicated the rise of the people in Mosul against the terrorist group. More than a dozen ISIL commanders have already been killed by unknown gunmen in the city in the last few weeks. The gunmen are said to be members of the 'M' movement. Letter M stands for the Arabic word, 'Moqavamah' (Resistance). The group is said to have been formed of dissident people who are opposed to the terrorist cult.

Yet, the source did not reveal if the poisoned food was given to the secretive ISIL leader in Iraq's Nineveh and before starting the journey to Syria or en route to the country.

Later reports said ISIL militants have started mass arrests in the region following the incident.

The report on poisoning al-Baghdadi surfaced after media revealed on Sunday that ISIL's top commanders, including al-Baghdadi, have started fleeing Mosul for Syria.

"The ISIL commanders, including al-Baghdadi, are escaping Mosul to Syria," Iraqi Kurdistan Democrat Party's media director Saeed Mamouziti said.

The official added that al-Baghdadi has also ordered his followers to completely destroy Mosul if they are defeated in the war against Iraq's joint military forces.

Earlier in September, a local source in Nineveh province revealed that tensions that rocked the city of Mosul and upcoming offensive by the Iraqi military forces to recapture Mosul had forced al-Baghdadi to come out of his hiding place in one of the city’s neighborhoods.

The exact location of al-Baghdadi has been a subject of speculation. However the account on sighting al-Baghdadi has intensified the assumptions that the ISIL leader is on the verge of leaving his secretive residence in Mosul, Iraq to Syria.

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