The guy has been ‘presumed dead’ more times than Robert Downey Jr.’s professional career. And were proven just as wrong each time. This time, can it actually be true?
It’s been reported by Reuters.
That isn’t exactly news. But something makes this report interesting: The group that claims to have confirmed it.
Here is the Reuters tweet:
BREAKING Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has been killed – Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it has "confirmed information" pic.twitter.com/zFtGqXlNqE
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 11, 2017
And the link to the story they claim has confirmed it:
Syrian Observatory says has "confirmed information" that Islamic State chief killed: https://t.co/4kH0XnJWo5
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 11, 2017
In June, Russia said they believed that he had been caught in one of their air strikes. This had not been confirmed or disproven.
But one group has officially claimed he has, in fact, been killed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Reuters on Tuesday that it had “confirmed information” that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed.
… “(We have) confirmed information from leaders, including one of the first rank who is Syrian, in the Islamic State in the eastern countryside of Deir al-Zor,” said Rami Abdulrahman, the director of the British-based war monitoring group.
In Iraq, U.S. Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State, said he could not confirm the news.
Abdulrahman said activists working with him in Deir al-Zor had been told by the Islamic State sources that Baghdadi had died, but not when or how. The sources said Baghdadi had been present in the eastern countryside of Syria’s Deir al-Zor province in the past three months.
…The death of Baghdadi, who declared a caliphate governed by Islamic law from a mosque in Mosul in 2014, would be one of the biggest blows yet to the jihadist group, which is trying to defend shrinking territory in Syria and Iraq.
The United States put up a $25 million reward for his capture, the same amount as it had offered for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his successor Ayman al-Zawahri. It is not yet known if anybody will claim the bounty. –Read More
If he IS dead?
Call us ‘cautiously optimistic. After all, there has been no independent verification of the claim. Yet, anyway.
It’s a bad month to be conneced to ISIS – or should we say ‘was-was’?
The guy who proclaimed their ‘caliphate’ may be dead.
The ancient mosque they proclaimed that caliphate from? It was blown up by scorched earth tactics ISIS militants.
The heartland of their power base, Iraq? The President of Iraq has gone there to proclaim it has been liberated from ISIS.
This won’t help their miserable recruiting efforts. At all.
