Russia says Islamic State leader Baghdadi killed in May airstrike

The Russian Army said on Friday it was seeking to verify whether Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the reclusive Islamic State chief, was killed when its warplanes hit the group’s top leaders in a raid in Syria last month.

Within hours, the US military said it could not immediately confirm Baghdadi’s death. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov too said he couldn’t definitively confirm the death of the world’s most-wanted man.

Reports about Baghdadi being killed or injured in air raids by coalition forces seem to emerge every few months. Last year alone, there were three reports that he had been killed or injured in air strikes or that he had been poisoned by an assassin.

According to the latest reports, Russia’s defence ministry claimed Baghdadi was killed with scores of IS commanders and fighters when Sukhoi combat jets carried out a 10-minute strike early on May 28 at a location near Raqqa in Syria, one of the last strongholds of the terror group.

The jets struck when the IS leaders had gathered to plan a pullout from Raqqa.

“Senior commanders of the military groups of the so-called IS military council, 30 mid-ranking field commanders and up to 300 militants who provided security for them were eliminated,” the defence ministry said in a statement. “According to information which is being checked through various channels, the leader of ISIL Ibrahim Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi was also present at the meeting and was eliminated by the strike,” it added.

But the US-led coalition said it could not confirm Baghdadi’s

death. “We cannot confirm these reports at this time,” said the Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman, US Army’s Col Ryan Dillon.

When asked about the claim during a news conference in Moscow, Lavrov said: “I don’t have a 100% confirmation of the information.”