Isil leader Baghdadi ‘still alive’

THE leader of Isil, Abu Bakr al-baghdadi, is still alive and hiding in Syria despite Russian reports of his death last month, Lahur Talabany, a Kurdish counter-terrorism official, has said.

“Baghdadi is definitely alive. He is not dead. We have information that he is alive. We believe 99 per cent he is alive,” Mr Talabany said yesterday, adding that the leader of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was located somewhere south of Raqqa, the capital of the jihadist group’s so-called caliphate.

“Don’t forget his roots go back to al-qaeda days in Iraq. He was hiding from security services. He knows what he is doing,” he said.