Russia looks into reports IS leader died in airstrike

Russia is trying to verify reports that its military has killed the leader of the Islamic State group in an air strike targeting a meeting of militant leaders.

The Defence Ministry claimed that Abu Bakr al-baghdadi was killed in late May with other senior group commanders just outside the group’s de facto capital in Syria, adding that information was “being verified through various channels”.

Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said: “I don’t have a 100 per cent confirmation of the information.”

There have been previous reports of al-baghdadi being killed but they did not turn out to be true.

The is leader last released an audio recording on 3 November, urging his followers to keep up the fight for Mosul as they defend the Iraqi city against a major offensive.

A spokesman for the Usled anti-is coalition said he could not confirm the Russian claim. The report of albaghdadi’s death comes as IS suffers major setbacks in which they have lost wide areas of territory.