Friday, Mar 29, 2024 | Last Update : 08:44 PM IST

  World   Americas  22 Jul 2017  Following various death claims of Baghdadi, Pentagon says IS leader alive

Following various death claims of Baghdadi, Pentagon says IS leader alive

AFP
Published : Jul 22, 2017, 12:59 pm IST
Updated : Jul 22, 2017, 1:13 pm IST

Russia's army said in mid-June that it was seeking to verify whether it had killed the IS chief in a May air strike in Syria.

ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. (Photo: AP)
 ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. (Photo: AP)

Washington: Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said Friday that he believes Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is still alive, following various claims he was dead.

"I think Baghdadi's alive... and I'll believe otherwise when we know we've killed him," Mattis told Pentagon reporters. "We are going after him, but we assume he is alive."

There have been persistent rumors that Baghdadi has died in recent months.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a longtime conflict monitor, last week said it had heard from senior IS leaders in Syria's Deir Ezzor province that Baghdadi was dead.

Russia's army said in mid-June that it was seeking to verify whether it had killed the IS chief in a May air strike in Syria.

With a $25 million US bounty on his head, Baghdadi has kept a low profile but was rumored to move regularly throughout IS-held territory in Iraq and Syria.

The Iraqi native has not been seen since making his only known public appearance as "caliph" in 2014 at the Grand Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul, which was destroyed in the battle for Iraq's second city.

Tags: pentagon, jim mattis, al-baghdadi, syrian observatory
Location: United States, District of Columbia, Washington