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Rabat – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed on Tuesday that the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had been killed.
The confirmation was reported a day after Iraq declared it had expelled the jihadists from their once biggest stronghold of Mosul.
“Top tier commanders from ISIS, who are present in Deir az Zor province have confirmed the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, emir of the Islamic State Group, to the Observatory,” Rami Abdurrahman, director of the war monitoring group told the AFP.
He added that while they learned his death on Tuesday, they still do not know when exactly, or how, he died.
Major international sources have claimed al-Baghdadi was killed in a coalition air strike in Raqqa on June 10. However, other reports claim the ISIS leader was killed in the nearby province of Deir Ezzor.
Abdurrahman said that while al-Baghdadi was “present in eastern parts of Deir Ezzor province,” he was not sure if was killed in the area or elsewhere.
Born in Samarra, Iraq in 1971, al-Baghdadi joined the insurgency in 2003, which cropped up following the US-led invasion of Iraq. He went on to become the world’s most hunted terrorist, with a USD 25 million bounty on his head.
