Baghdadi, whose ISIL Takfiri militants are wreaking havoc on Iraq, was captured by US troops in 2005 and held at the US-operated Camp Bucca detention center in Umm Qasr, a port city in southern Iraq.

However, he was released from prison after Washington turned over all detainees to Iraqi authorities under a troop drawdown agreement that then US President George W. Bush signed with the Iraqi government in 2010.

The same year, Baghdadi assumed leadership of the ISIL which has now taken control of vast swathes of conflict-stricken Iraq.

The US government has since placed a USD 10-million bounty on Baghdadi's head.

Baghdadi is said to have been born in the Iraqi city of Samarra, north of the capital Baghdad, in 1971, with the name Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai.

He obtained a PhD in Islamic studies and history from the Islamic University of Baghdad.

At the time of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Baghdadi was an imam at a mosque and some analysts speculate that he may have been radicalized while held by the US.

The ISIL recently unveiled a five-year plan for expanding their control into Europe.

The terrorist militants plan first to extend their so-called Islamic caliphate into Eastern Europe, including Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, and then conquer as far as Austria.

The crisis in Iraq escalated after the ISIL militants took control of Mosul in a lightning attack on June 10, which was followed by the fall of Tikrit, located 140 kilometers (87 miles) northwest of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

HH/HH