Leader of the ISIS terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) Abu Bakr al-Baghdidi is alive and and is hiding in Syria, Al Arabiya television channel said on Sunday, citing director of Iraqi interior ministry’s intelligence and counter-terrorism operations service, Abu Ali al-Basri.
According to Al Arabiya, al-Basri refuted reports about al-Baghdadi’s death, saying he is still hiding in Syria, but not in the province of Raqqa, the ISIS’ stronghold.
Al Sumaria television channel said on July 11 citing a source in Iraq’s Nineveh province that ISIS militants had reported the death of their leader.
According to the television channel, ISIS issued a brief statement on al-Baghdadi’s death where they said the name of a "new caliph" would be announced soon.
Earlier, Iranian mass media circulated photos confirming al-Baghdadi’s death. Russia’s defense ministry reported in mid-June that al-Baghdadi and 300 more ISIS militants had been presumably killed in a Russian airstrike on Raqqa’s southern suburb.
