PENTAGON CHIEF MATTIS THINKS ISIS CHIEF IS STILL ALIVE

WASHINGTON: Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said on Friday that he believes Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is still alive, following various claims he was dead.

“I think Baghdadi’s alive... and I’ll believe otherwise when we know we’ve killed him,” Mattis told Pentagon reporters.

There have been persistent rumours that Baghdadi has died in recent months.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights last week said it had heard from senior IS leaders in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province that Baghdadi was dead.

Russia’s army said in mid-June that it was seeking to verify whether it had killed the IS chief in a May air strike in Syria.

With a $25 million US bounty on his head, Baghdadi has kept a low profile but was rumored to move regularly throughout IS-held territory in Iraq and Syria.

The Iraqi native has not been seen since making his only known public appearance as “caliph” in 2014 at the Grand Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul.

‘NYT FOILED ATTEMPT TO KILL BAGHDADI’

US President Donald Trump on Saturday accused the New York Times of “foiling” a plot to kill Baghdadi, claiming that their “sick agenda” has hurt national security.

“The Failing New York Times foiled U.S. attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist, Al-Baghdadi. Their sick agenda over National Security,” he tweeted.

It was not immediately clear why he held the Times responsible or what attack he meant.