Baghdadi is dead: Russia
US says ‘cannot confirm’ ISIS chief ’s death in Syria
The Russian army on Friday said it was seeking to verify whether Islamic State chief Abu Bakr alBaghdadi was killed when its warplanes hit the group’s leaders in a night raid in Syria last month.
The United States said it could not immediately confirm whether Baghdadi, the undisputed leader of global jihadism, was dead.
The elusive Iraqi-born Islamist is the world’s most-wanted man and has not been seen in public since proclaiming himself “caliph” in the Iraqi city of Mosul three years ago.
Russia’s army said Sukhoi warplanes carried out the 10-minute raid at a location near the ISIS stronghold of Raqa, where group leaders had gathered to plan a pullout from the area.
“Senior commanders of the military groups of the so-called ISIS military council, 30 mid-ranking field commanders and up to 300 militants who provided security for them were eliminated,” the army’s statement said.
“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 said.
ISIL is an acronym for the so-called ISIS group, also known as Daesh.
Later at the meeting of President Vladimir Putin’s security council, Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu gave different figures of jihadists killed in the strike, according to the Kremlin. Mr Shoigu said the strike “eliminated over 100 terrorists, including members of ISIS leadership, and, presumably, alBaghdadi,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.
However, when asked about the claim, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said: “I don’t have a 100-percent confirmation of the information.”
However, a spokesman for the US-led antiIslamic State coalition said he would welcome such news, but urged caution.
“There have been several past claims of this kind that have been proven false and we have seen no definitive proof that this report is true either,” US Army colonel Ryan Dillon said.