ISIL LEADER BELIEVED KILLED IN AIRSTRIKE

BEIRUT Uncertainty and confusion surrounded the fate of the head of the Islamic State Friday as Russia announced it may have killed him in an airstrike targeting a meeting of ISIL leaders just outside the group’s self-declared capital in Syria, but U.S. officials said there was no definitive proof of his death.

The demise of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, believed to be in his mid-40s, would be a severe blow to the extremist group as it fights to hang on to its strongholds in Syria and Iraq, although it was not clear how much operational control he retains over the terrorist group.

Apart from Moscow’s claim that he may have been killed in the May 28 airstrike along with more than 300 militants, there was not much else to back it up. The Russian Defence Ministry said the information about his death was still “being verified through various channels.”

Asked about that claim at a Moscow news conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “I don’t have a 100 per cent confirmation of the information.”

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said there was no information to corroborate the report.