"ISIS Leader Al-Baghdadi Killed in Airstrike on Raqqa": Daesh News Agency

Mon Jun 13, 2016 18:05:53

Reportedly, the ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi has been killed in airstrike on Raqqa, Daesh news agency claims according to ABNA AND Turkish Daily Yeni Şafak.

Leader of Daesh (ISIS) terrorist organization, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, has been killed in US-led coalition airstrikes on Raqqa, the terror group reportedly claimed.

Arabic media wired the report of al-Baghdadi's death, citing pro-Daesh news agency al-Amaq.

The report said that Baghdadi had been killed on Sunday morning by the coalition air operation in Syria. The coalition operation command has not made a statement so far.

The so-called official news agency of the terror group said in a statement released on behalf of Daesh, that their “Caliph” al-Baghdadi had been killed.

“Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed by coalition airstrikes on Raqqa on the fifth day of Ramadan,” it said.

While it's still possible that the U.S.'s most wanted man continues to be hunkered down inside the self-declared ISIS capitol of Raqqa, Syria, a more recent analysis potentially puts Baghdadi in constant motion as he attempts to avoid being killed or captured by anti-ISIS coalition forces.

"We have no reason to believe that Baghdadi's not still alive, but we have not heard from him since the end of last year," U.S. Special Envoy Brett McGurk said Friday, referring to an audio tape that surfaced online in December.

U.S. officials agree on two initial points. First, they don't know exactly where he is, and if they did, they would attack his location either from the ground or air if they could, CNN reports.

Second, Baghdadi is practicing, in the words of one official, "extraordinary operational security" to keep his location secret.

The possibility that Baghdadi is hiding in Raqqa has in no way been dismissed.

However, officials say the alternative scenario -- that Baghdadi is moving around -- is actively being considered. There was intelligence believed to be credible over the last six months that Baghdadi traveled to the Mosul, Iraq, area at least twice, said a U.S. official.

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