[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters on Tuesday that it had “confirmed information” that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed.Since ISIS admitted he was dead yesterday he's probably Moulderin' in the Grave.
Russia’s defense ministry said it may have killed Baghdadi when one of its air strikes hit a gathering of ISIS 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 skeptical.
Just another footnote in history...
Reuters could not independently verify Baghdadi’s death.
Who was Ivan the Terrible's successor? Quick now, without Googling it...
I would have guessed Boris Godunov, and would have been wrong
Baghdadi’s death, which has been frequently reported since he declared a caliphate from a mosque in the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014, is one of the biggest blows yet to the radical group, which is trying to defend shrinking territory in Syria and Iraq.
| An Nahar adds: |
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
, emir of the Islamic State group, to the Observatory," the monitoring group's director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. "We learned of it today but we do not know when he died or how."
Deir Ezzor, in eastern Syria, remains largely under IS control even as the group is losing territory elsewhere in the country and in neighboring Iraq.
Abdel Rahman said Baghdadi "was present in eastern parts of Deir Ezzor province" in recent months, but it was unclear if he died in the area or elsewhere.
There was no official confirmation or denial of the news on social media platforms used by IS.