United States, Allies Conduct 20 Air Strikes in Syria and Iraq

Washington: A coalition led by the United States conducted 18 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq on Sunday, according to a military statement that did not directly address reports that the militant group's reclusive leader was killed in one of the bombardments.

Iraq said on Sunday its air force had hit an Islamic State meeting in a town in western Iraq and also struck a convoy that was carrying Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to the meeting. But Baghdadi did not appear to be among the group's eight senior figures killed in an air strike on the meeting in Karabla, a town in Iraq's Anbar province near the Syrian border.

The military statement did not mention Karabla. It did say that on Sunday an air strike near the town of Al Baghdadi destroyed a vehicle and that seven strikes near Ramadi destroyed explosives, construction equipment and a building, while also wounding an Islamic State fighter.

The coalition also conducted two air strikes against Islamic State in Syria on Sunday, as Russia said it carried out 55 sorties in its escalation in the war-torn country.