IS leader al-Baghdadi has fled Mosul: US official

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has fled Mosul and has apparently delegated tactical control of the battle for the city to local commanders, a US defense official said Wednesday.The official said the elusive leader, who appeared in public in Mosul in July 2014 to proclaim a "caliphate," fled the former IS bastion some time before Iraqi security forces surrounded the city during an offensive to retake it."He was in Mosul at some point before the offensive.