Russia not sure if it killed Baghdadi

Russia said on Tuesday it could not confirm that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been killed in an air strike in Syria last month, the Interfax news agency quoted deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov as saying.

Moscow had said on Friday its forces may have killed the secretive Islamic State leader, but Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials were sceptical.

Col. Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the US-led coalition’s operation against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, said the coalition “cannot confirm these reports at this time.”

There have been a number of previous reports of Baghdadi’s death or him being critically injured by US-led coalition air strikes. But each time, the reports turned out to be false.

US WANTS TO RESUME HOTLINE WITH RUSSIA

The US wants to re-establish a military hotline that Russia said it had severed after an American jet shot down a Syrian regime warplane, the top US general has said Monday.

The so-called “deconfliction” line has been a vital tool in protecting both sides’ forces as they conduct separate campaigns in Syria’s crowded battlespace.

“We will work diplomatically and militarily in the coming hours to re-establish deconfliction,” said General Joe Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, referring to the special communications channel.

Russia’s defense ministry earlier said it would halt its use of the incident-prevention hotline after US forces downed a Syrian jet, though Dunford noted it had remained in use “over the last few hours.”

AUSTRALIA SUSPENDS SYRIA AIR STRIKES

Australia on Tuesday suspended its airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria as a precaution, after a U.S. fighter jet shot down a Syrian warplane earlier this week and Russia warned the United States-led coalition from flying over Syrian army positions west of the Euphrates River.

The announcement from Canberra came as a brief, two-day truce collapsed in the southern Syrian city of Daraa and nearby areas where government forces have gained ground.