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A top Syrian human rights watchdog group announced Tuesday it had “confirmed information” Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed.
“(We have) confirmed information from leaders, including one of the first rank, in the Islamic State in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zor,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdulrahman told Reuters.
Abdulrahman said the Islamic State confirmed to his group’s sources in eastern Syria Baghdadi had been killed, but did not specify when. Baghdadi, one of the world’s most wanted men, has been rumored to be killed or wounded several times in the past as his Jihadist group battles a U.S.-led coalition to hold its territory in Iraq and Syria. In June, Russia announced it may have killed Baghdadi in an airstrike on Islamic State commanders near Raqqa, but Western powers couldn’t confirm Moscow’s claims.
U.S. defense officials and Iraqi officials haven’t yet confirmed Baghdadi’s death. If confirmed, it would deal a major blow to the embattled terrorist group, which just lost its stronghold of Mosul to Iraqi forces on Monday.
Full article at Reuters.com