Lording It In Paradise

"I can't absolutely confirm that [Islamic State Caliph] Baghdadi has been killed. Probably it will take some days to have absolute confirmation."
General Nicholas Houghton Chief of the Defence Staff, United Kingdom

"[Coalition aircraft conducted a] series of airstrikes against a gathering of (Islamic State) leaders near Mosul [but confirmation of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's involvement could not be confirmed]."
Patrick Ryder, spokesman, U.S. Central Command

"More than 20 other people were killed in the U.S. airstrike but they are not senior in the organization. They were hit while their convoy was heading to hold a meeting."
"Certainly it was not a routine meeting because of the way they were travelling to it, moving many cars despite the danger of the coalition airplanes."
"Baghdadi's very close companion [Auf Abdulrahman Elefery was killed]. He and Baghdadi were rarely separate." 
Hisham al-Hahimi, Iraqi security strategist

AP Photo    ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, aka Caliph Ibrahim, addressing Muslim worshippers at a mosque in the militant-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Ten vehicles in the convoy that turned out to be a funeral cortege were destroyed in the Friday airstrike not far from Mosul. Both Iraqi defence and interior ministry officials claim that Baghdadi had been injured. If they have any knowledge of the extent of his injuries, should he still be in the land of the living, they're keeping it pretty close, failing to divulge precisely what they know. If they know anything of usefulness, that is to say.

Someone on the other side of the equation, however, confirmed Baghdadi's injured state, wishing him a "speedy recovery" from the Twitter account of an Islamic State spokesman, Mohammed al-Adnani. But those in coalition authority are reluctant to verify that account as well. In the tradition of taking care not to speak of what you hope for, lest disappointment be the reward.

But Mr. al-Hashimi has verified that Mr. Elefery whose code name was Abu Suja was the most senior of those to have died. He was the "general co-ordinator for the affairs of martyrs and women"; quite the associated tandem, that. "He was a social affairs official, charged with paying salaries and caring for families", explained Mr. Al-Hashimi. Ah, the minister-of-good-works.

Unlike his predecessors leading al-Qaeda, it would seem that the caliph of Islamic State delegated authority and management. Assigning deputies to manage military stores and roadside-bomb attacks, taking care of the finances of the organization and just about everything in between. Caliph Baghdadi left to himself the dignity of the final voice, the respected elder statesman whose word was law.

That word and the law it represents may or may not just yet be set to be placed on the shoulder of a trusted lieutenant, someone that the caliph anointed with the light touch of a scimitar on the shoulders and head of a replacement caliph so that succession would proceed smoothly and the bloody ravages and rampages continue uninterrupted, U.S.-led coalition airstrikes be damned.

Enthusing ever greater numbers of adherents eager to flock to the free-for-all blood-letting liberally circumscribed and authorized by the greatest of martyrs now residing imperiously from Paradise, looking down benignly from his exalted position, zealously attended by the requisite number of nubile virgins.

Or not.