Al-baghdadi may have killed in Russian airstrike
Russia’s defence ministry is investigating whether one of its air strikes in Syria killed the leader of the Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) terror group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Russian Su-34 aircraft and an Su-35 multirole fighter carried out airstrikes near the group’s stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria on May 28, the ministry said. The strikes targeted a meeting of high-ranking Daesh chiefs where Al- Baghdadi was reportedly present.
A statement by the ministry claimed the 28 May strike killed around 30 mid-level Daesh leaders and another 300 fighter, during a meeting of Daesh’s “military council”. The jihadi group’s de-facto capital is surrounded to the north, east and west by advancing Syrian rebel and Kurdish forces backed by the US-led coalition.
Baghdadi has not been seen in public since proclaiming himself “caliph” in the Iraqi city of Mosul three years ago. His group has earned global notoriety for the most horrible crimes, including beheadings.
The Russian Defense Ministry said they had informed the U.S. administration of the strike.
The US-led anti-Daesh coalition said it can’t confirm the information that Baghdadi was killed in a Russia-led airstrike.
“We cannot confirm these reports at this time,” Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTFOIR), said in a statement to AP.
