Top commander says ISIS leader most likely still alive

The leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is likely still alive and hiding somewhere near the Iraq-Syria border, the commander of the U.S.-led coalition fighting the militant group said Thursday, Politico reports.

Army Lt. Gen. Steve Townsend, asked about the status of the elusive terrorist leader, told reporters at the Pentagon he thinks al-Baghdadi is alive in part because he had seen no credible evidence to the contrary, despite numerous reports of his demise.

Townsend, speaking by video from Baghdad, also said his view is informed by “some indicators in intelligence channels that he’s alive.”

“I think he’s probably somewhere in the middle Euphrates River valley,” the expanse between the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor and the Iraqi town of Rawah, added Townsend.