ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ‘trapped in Mosul’ as Iraqi and Kurdish troops besiege city
The terror group's figurehead and self-declared Caliph is believed to be holed up as ISIS prepares for bloody last stand
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is trapped in the besieged city of Mosul, it was claimed last night.
The terror group's figurehead is believed to be holed up with ISIS bombmaker Fawzi Ali Nouimeh as the fanatics prepare for a bloody last stand against Iraqi and Kurdish forces.
Some ISIS commanders have begun fleeing Mosul ahead of the advance with some crashing their trucks in their hurry to get away.
But senior Kurdish official Hoshiyar Zebari said his forces had “solid” intelligence that al-Baghdadi - the world's second most wanted man with a $10m bounty on his head - was still in Mosul.
His presence means the 3,000 remaining diehards will fight with even greater ferocity to defend the last ISIS stronghold in Iraq.
And there are fears Nouimeh's henchmen have planted a network of booby-trap bombs throughout the stricken city, home to around 1.5million people.
Tens of thousands of Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga warriors launched a long-awaited assault to retake Mosul this week more than two years after it fell to marauding ISIS jihadis who stormed across from Syria in 2014.
It was from a mosque in Mosul that al-Baghdadi declared his Caliphate and the city has huge significance in the battle to defeat the evil death cult.
The fight for the city has now reached its third day, with ISIS fighters believed to be preparing for bloody street-to-street warfare.
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The terror group are said to be growing more desperate even using civilians as human shields when Kurdish troops launched the first skirmishes in villages outside the city.
Commanders said men, women and children were forced into the line of fire as ISIS cowards disappeared down rat holes in the ground.
Disturbing reports from inside Mosul suggest more than 100 terrified families were forced to move into buildings seen as likely targets for US air strikes.
Hundreds of thousands of residents could also come under attack as they to flee battle, it is feared.
The International Organisation for Migration said it was preparing gas masks in case of chemical attack by the jihadis.
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