WEB DESK
Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has died. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had information from top IS leaders confirming Baghdadi’s death.
The monitoring group’s director, Rami Abdel Rahman told a news agency that they learned of the death today. He said Observatory sources in Syria’s eastern town of Deir al-Zor had been told by IS sources that Baghdadi had died “but they did not specify when.
Pertinently, Baghdadi’s death had been announced many times before but the Observatory has a track record of credible reporting on Syria’s civil war.
In the meantime, Voice of America quoted Pentagon officials as saying they have no information to confirm reports that Baghdadi is dead. The news of his death comes a day after Iraq declared it had driven Islamic State from their one-time biggest stronghold of Mosul in Iraq.
There have been persistent rumours of Baghdadi’s death in recent months. Last month, Russia’s army said that it was seeking to verify whether it had killed the IS chief in an air strike in Syria in May.