Syria group ‘confirms’ Baghdadi is dead
cairo — The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday that it had “confirmed information” that Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi has been killed.
The report came just days after the last sectors of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which Baghdadi’s forces overran almost exactly three years ago, were recaptured by the Iraqi army.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said in June that it might have killed Baghdadi when one of its air strikes hit Daesh commanders on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa, but Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials have been sceptical.
“(We have) confirmed information from leaders, including one of the first rank who is Syrian, in the Daesh in the eastern countryside of Deir Al Zor,” Rami Abdulrahman, the director of the British-based war monitoring group, said. —
cairo/beirut — The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters on Tuesday that it had “confirmed information” that Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi has been killed.
The report came just days after the Iraqi army recaptured the last sectors of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which Baghdadi’s forces overran almost exactly three years ago.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said in June that it might have killed Baghdadi when one of its air strikes hit a gathering of Daesh commanders on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa. But Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials have been sceptical. Reuters could not independently verify Baghdadi’s
We have confirmed information from leaders, including one of the first rank who is syrian, in the daesh in the eastern countryside of deir al Zor Rami Abdulrahman, director of the UK-based war monitoring group
death. “(We have) confirmed information from leaders, including one of the first rank who is Syrian, in the Daesh in the eastern countryside of Deir Al Zor,” said Rami Abdulrahman, the director of the British-based war monitoring group.
In Iraq, US Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the US -led coalition fighting Daesh, said he could not confirm the news. Abdulrahman said activists working with him in Deir Al Zor had been told by the Daesh sources that Baghdadi had died, but not when or how. The sources said Baghdadi had been present in the eastern countryside of Syria’s Deir Al Zor province in the past three months. The Pentagon said it had no information to corroborate the reports. Kurdish and Iraqi officials also had no immediate confirmation.
Baghdadi’s death has been announced many times before, but the Observatory has a record of credible reporting on the Syrian conflict. Daesh-affiliated websites and social media feeds have so far said nothing.
The death of Baghdadi would be one of the biggest blows yet to the militant group, which is trying to defend shrinking territory in Syria and Iraq.
The United States put up a $25 million reward for his capture, the same amount as it had offered for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his successor Ayman Al Zawahri. It is not yet known if anybody will claim the bounty. The Daesh leaders killed in Iraq and Syria since the US-led coalition began its air strikes include Abu Ali Al Anbari, Baghdadi’s deputy; the group’s “minister of war”, Abu Omar Al Shishani, a close military adviser to Baghdadi; and Abu Mohammad Al Adnani, one of its most prominent and longest-serving leaders.
Baghdadi was born Ibrahim Awad Al Samarrai in 1971 in Tobchi, a poor area near Samarra, north of the capital Baghdad.
His family included preachers from the extremist Salafi school. He joined the insurgency in 2003, the year of the US -led invasion of Iraq, and was captured by the Americans. They released him about a year later, thinking he was a civilian agitator rather than a military threat. —