{"id":35312,"date":"2019-11-05T13:25:17","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T13:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/11\/05\/in-last-days-al-baghdadi-sought-safety-in-shrinking-domain\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:51:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:51:47","slug":"in-last-days-al-baghdadi-sought-safety-in-shrinking-domain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/11\/05\/in-last-days-al-baghdadi-sought-safety-in-shrinking-domain\/","title":{"rendered":"In last days, al-Baghdadi sought safety in shrinking domain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BEIRUT \u2014 In his last months on the run, Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was agitated, fearful of traitors, sometimes disguised as a shepherd, sometimes hiding underground, always dependent on a shrinking circle of confidants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Associates paint a picture of a man obsessed with his security and well-being and trying to find safety in towns and deserts in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border as the extremists\u2019 domains crumbled. In the end, the brutal leader once hailed as \u201ccaliph\u201d left former IS areas completely, slipping into hostile territory in Syria\u2019s northwestern Idlib province run by the radical group\u2019s al-Qaida-linked rivals. There, he blew himself up during an Oct. 26 raid by U.S. special operations forces<\/a> on his heavily fortified safe house. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For months, he kept a Yazidi teen as a slave, and she told The Associated Press how he brought her along as he moved, traveling with a core group of up to seven close associates. Months ago, he delegated most of his powers to a senior deputy who is likely the man announced by the group as his successor<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Yazidi girl, who was freed in a U.S.-led raid in May, said al-Baghdadi first tried to flee to Idlib in late 2017. She said one night she was loaded into a three-vehicle convoy that included the IS leader, his wife and his security entourage, headed for the province. The convoy reached a main road but then turned around, apparently fearing it would come under attack, said the girl, who was 17 at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For about a week they stayed in the southeastern Syrian town of Hajin, near the Iraqi border. Then they moved north to Dashisha, another border town in Syria within IS-held territory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, the Yazidi teen stayed for four months at the home of al-Baghdadi\u2019s father-in-law, a close aide named Abu Abdullah al-Zubaie. Al-Baghdadi would visit her there frequently and rape her and at times beat her, the teen said. He would only move at night, wearing sneakers and covering his face, always with around five security men who addressed him as \u201chajji\u201d or \u201csheikh,\u201d she said. The AP does not identify victims of sexual assault. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I asked him anything, he would not give me an answer for security reasons. Not everyone knew where he was,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the spring of 2018, she was given to another man, who took her out of Dashisha. That was the last time she saw al-Baghdadi, though he sent her a piece of jewelry as a gift, the teen said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears al-Baghdadi then moved from place to place in eastern Syria for the next year as one IS stronghold after another fell to U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces, before heading to Idlib sometime in the spring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that time, al-Baghdadi was a \u201cnervous wreck,\u201d pacing up and down and complaining of treason and infiltrations among his \u201cwalis,\u201d or governors of the group\u2019s self-declared provinces, his brother-in-law, Mohamad Ali Sajit, said in an interview with Al-Arabiya TV aired last week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is all treason,\u201d Sajit recalled al-Baghdadi shouting. <\/p>\n\n\n\t