Russian airstrike might have killed ISIS leader
Military investigating whether caliph was hit during meeting
MOSCOW — Russia’s military said Friday that it is looking into whether one of its airstrikes in the Syrian desert had killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the selfdeclared caliph of the Islamic State group.
In a statement, the Defense Ministry said that the Russian air force struck a meeting of Islamic State leaders May 28 outside Raqqa, Syria, the group’s de facto capital, possibly killing al-Baghdadi.
The statement offered no explanation for the two-week delay in publicizing the airstrike. And it also was not clear whether the Russian military had known in advance that al-Baghdadi was at the gathering or had learned of this possibility only after the strike was carried out.
Rumors of al-Baghdadi’s death had circulated for months before the Russian announcement. But a Pentagon spokesman, Capt. Jeff Davis of the Navy, said Friday: “We have no information to corroborate those reports.”
Nothing has been heard from al-Baghdadi publicly since November, when the Islamic State released a blistering audio recording in which he urged forces to remain firm in the face of the U.S.-backed Iraqi offensive in Mosul.
Rami Abdul Rahman, founder of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors military operations in Syria, said it had no record of senior Islamic State leaders being in the area around Raqqa at the time of the strike. “It’s illogical for ISIS senior leaders to stay in Raqqa amid this military operation,” he said, adding that senior leaders had already decamped southeast, to the area around the city of Deir el-Zour, closer to the border with Iraq.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, himself introduced a note of caution when asked about the Russian military’s reports. “So far, I do not have 100 percent confirmation of this information,” he said.
The Russian military said two models of Sukhoi fighter jets, Su34s and Su-35s, had carried out the strike, on what it described as “high level commanders of the terrorist group within the so-called military council of the Islamic State,” Interfax reported.
The strike also killed 30 field commanders and as many as 300 fighters, the military said. The strike lasted from 12:35 a.m. until 12:45 a.m., according to Interfax.
Russia learned of the meeting late in May, and ascertained that the commanders intended to discuss the retreat of their fighters from Raqqa, the Defense Ministry said. Russia is believed to have an extensive intelligence operation targeting the Islamic State that makes use of Muslims from former Soviet states who have joined the group.