A new Islamic State video shows the execution of Ethiopian Coptic Christians. Photo: Screenshot.

JNS.org – The leader of the Islamic State terror group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, reportedly suffered severe spinal injuries as a result of a U.S. airstrike in mid-March.

Three sources confirmed to The Guardian that al-Baghdadi, who has proclaimed himself as caliph, has remained incapacitated since the airstrike and has been unable to leader the terrorist organization that has conquered large swaths of Syria and Iraq. A female radiologist and male surgeon have been treating al-Baghdadi, the sources indicated.

Born in Samarra, Iraq, in 1971, al-Baghdadi joined the Iraqi insurgency shortly after the U.S. invasion in 2003, and in 2010 he took over the organization that would eventually be called Islamic State.

Senior Islamic State official Abu Alaa al-Afri is now leading the terror group.

“They have a lot of confidence in al-Afri,” Hisham al-Hashimi, the Iraqi government’s senior adviser on the Islamic State issue, told The Guardian. “He is smart, and a good leader and administrator. If Baghdadi ends up dying, he will lead them.”