REPORTS: ISIS Admits Leader al-Baghdadi Is Dead

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, the terror group has reportedly confirmed.

According to the Daily Mail:

ISIS has finally admitted its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, according to media reports in Iraq.

The terror group is said to have confirmed that the 45-year-old was killed in an air strike in the Iraqi province of Nineveh.

Reports claim ISIS fanatics are scrambling to find a successor to the terror chief, who announced the formation of the group’s so-called caliphate in Mosul in 2014.

The claims were made by a source, speaking to Iraq’s Al Sumaria News, who said a ban on jihadis talking about the leader’s death had now been lifted.

Earlier this month, an ISIS preacher and leader was executed by the militants after he accidentally suggested that al-Baghdadi had died.

Senior ISIS leader and preacher, Abu Qutaiba was burned to death in the group’s stronghold town of Tal Afar, Alsumaria News reported.

Last month, Russia media outlets reported al-Baghdadi had been killed in airstrikes.

Reuters reported:

Moscow said on Friday its forces may have killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an air strike in Syria last month, but Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials were skeptical.

The secretive Islamic State leader has frequently been reported killed or wounded since he declared a caliphate to rule over all Muslims from a mosque in Mosul in 2014, after leading his fighters on a sweep through northern Iraq.

If the report does prove true, it would be one of the biggest blows yet to Islamic State, which is trying to defend its shrinking territory against an array of forces backed by regional and global powers in both Syria and Iraq.

RT was one of the first outsets to report on al-Baghdadi’s death.

The news comes as Mosul has been liberated of ISIS by Iraqi forces.

BBC reported:

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has formally declared victory over so-called Islamic State (IS) in Mosul.

Mr Abadi waved a national flag with troops after announcing the “collapse of the terrorist state of falsehood”.

Earlier, clashes were reported in a small part of Old City where a few dozen IS militants were holding out.

The battle for Mosul has taken almost nine months, left large areas in ruins, killed thousands of civilians and displaced more than 920,000 others.

Commanders from the US-led coalition that has provided air and ground support to Iraqi forces said the urban combat had been most intense since World War Two.

Mr Abadi made the declaration of victory at the operations room of the Counter-Terrorism Service, whose elite forces were the first to enter Mosul in November.

Iraqis celebrated the wonderful news with fireworks!

 

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