POSSIBLE? – AT 8:23 A.M. ET:  An Arab news source that we don't know, is reporting the following, claiming it was also reported by AFP, the leading French news agency.  The White House and Pentagon are not confirming.  We present it only as something that is running right now, and getting attention:

Iraqi forces reported that the head of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) 'Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi' was killed in U.S airstrikes.

"Despite that Iraqi and U.S sources confirmed the killing of Abu Bajr al-Baghdadi, but the White House did not confirmed it yet", AFP reported.

Three senior members of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) - including an aide to its leader - were killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq, a senior Iraqi security official told NBC News Thursday. The strike on the ISIS stronghold of Mosul killed Abu Hajar Al-Sufi, an aide to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as well as an explosives operative and the military leader of nearby Tel Afar, the source said on condition of anonymity. Al Arabiya cited the Iraqi Defense Ministry saying Baghdadi's aide had been killed.

Pentagon Spokesman Col. Steve Warren could not confirm the deaths and said ISIS leaders had not been targeted. But he added that if ISIS leaders were embedded "inside troop formations they are likely to be killed." The U.S. has been carrying out airstrikes across the country's north after the brutal terror group gained ground in a murderous sweep in June.

COMMENT:  We'll just have to wait and see.  Sometimes these stories are correct, and sometimes they're started by political opponents of the allegedly departed loved one, just to make trouble.

Even if al-Baghdadi has gone to get his 72 virgins, it might make little difference.  The Islamic State is based on an idea, a frightening idea.  It will, unfortunately, live on.

September 7, 2014