The quiet man who harbored Islamic State leader al-Baghdadi

BEIRUT - The locals knew him as Abu Mohammed Salemeh, an animal feed wholesaler who lived in a compound on the edge of Syria's border with Turkey, on the outskirts of a town called Barisha. Salemeh was friendly enough, residents said this week, but mostly kept to himself.

So they were surprised to learn about his secret life as the commander of an extremist group affiliated with al-Qaida - and even more surprised to learn that he had been harboring a rival extremist, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder of Islamic State.

"Who would come here - to a village with nothing?" asked Ayman Abdul Ghani, a 33-year-old medical activist working with Barisha's local council. "Let's be logical."

Al-Baghdadi died last weekend during a raid by U.S. forces on the compound in Barisha, according