Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — The commander of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant was said to have fled Iraq amid U.S. air strikes on Kurdistan.

Officials said ISIL commander Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi left his headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul around Aug. 10. They said Al Baghdadi, a nomme de guerre, fled from Iraq to neighboring Syria as Iraq and the United States intensified air strikes on ISIL positions.

“According to our intelligence sources, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi traveled to Syria as part of a convoy of 30 Hummer vehicles after fearing being targeted by U.S. airstrikes,” a senior Kurdish official, Said Zinni, said.

Zinni, spokesman of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said Al Baghdadi left Mosul around Aug. 10. He said several of Al Baghdadi’s top commanders have been killed in the Kurdish offensive.

In a statement to the London-based newspaper A-Sharq Al Awsat, Zinni did not identify the dead ISIL chiefs. He said Kurdish forces, called Peshmerga, were succeeding in halting ISIL’s advance through Kurdistan as well as in the Diyala province to the south.

Officials said ISIL was moving its fighters out of northern Iraq to Syria amid an air campaign by NATO. They said at least four NATO states were supplying the Kurds with a range of weapons and ground platforms.

“Whoever has authorization from ISIL is transferred to areas near Mosul,” a Kurdish source said. “Others are sent to the fighting in Syria after three days of military training at the Kindi training camp.”

The latest Western state to send arms to the Kurds was identified as France. Officials said the French military delivered heavy weapons expected to be used by Kurdish forces.

“We are still waiting for more weapons from our allies,” Kurdish Security Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Halgurd Hikmat said.

  Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, Brig. Gen. Halgurd Hikmat, ISIL’s Al Baghdadi flees Iraq for Syria as U.S. steps up air strikesISIL’s Al Baghdadi flees Iraq for Syria as U.S. steps up air strikes, Mosul, peshmerga