Is ISIS leader al-Baghdadi dead?

Is ISIS leader al-Baghdadi dead? Reports include various sources claiming they have information confirming his death.  

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, founder and leader of the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group, is dead, according to a report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which says it has obtained “reliable information confirming his death from a “first-line” ISIS commander.

The London-based SOHR, which monitors the Syrian civil war, quoted sources that al-Baghdadi had been hiding over the past three months in a village at the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, on the border with Iraq, and that he has recently died.

The report did not specify how al-Baghdadi died.

Earlier in the day, ISIS terrorists confirmed that al-Baghdadi is dead, the Al Sumaria TV channel reported, citing a source in the Iraqi province of Nineveh.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of the US-led coalition, said on Tuesday he could neither verify nor refute the reports.

“Despite all the helpful reports to us from every source imaginable, I’m unable to confirm or deny where he is, or whether he’s alive or dead,” Townsend told reporters.

However, he stressed that al-Baghdadi’s death would not end the threat posed by ISIS, although “I just know it would make me feel a lot better if he were dead.”

These are not the first reports of al-Baghdadi’s death, but SOHR has accurately reported similar deaths of key ISIS officials in the past.

In June, the Russian Defense Ministry said al-Baghdadi was likely killed during a Russian airstrike on a terrorist command post in the city of Raqqa the previous month. A few days later, Operation Inherent Resolve Col. Ryan Dillon said that the US had no conclusive evidence to confirm that statement.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News 

Al-BaghdadiISISIslamic terrorSOHRSyria