2LT International News

LONDON, U.K. – Last month, the Russians declared that the man who formed ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was dead and that they had hatched the deadly plot. 

While Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials remained sceptical – now the U.K.-based Syrian war monitor has declared that the ISIS leader is dead.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights was quoted in a Reuters report as saying that it had “confirmed information” that the Islamic State leader Baghdadi had been killed.

The Syrian Observatory has made the claims days after the Iraqi army declared victory over the terror group, led by Baghdadi, that has wrecked havoc in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul for three years.

In June, Russia’s Defence Ministry declared that it might have killed Baghdadi when one of its air strikes hit a gathering of Islamic State commanders on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa. 

Now, Rami Abdulrahman, the director of the British-based war monitoring group said, “(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.”

Abdulrahman added that activists working with him in Deir al-Zor had been told by the Islamic State sources that Baghdadi had died, but there were no details available about when or how he died. 

According to the sources, Baghdadi had been present in the eastern countryside of Syria’s Deir al-Zor province in the past three months.

Commenting on the announcement, U.S. Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Iraq said he could not confirm the news.

The Pentagon meanwhile has said that it had no information to corroborate the reports and Kurdish and Iraqi officials too did not confirm the report.

So far, several reports have claimed that the founder of the most feared terrorist group – ISIS, is dead.

The media has, several times in the past, speculated about the death of one of the world’s most feared man, however, each time the world media speculated about his death, more atrocities followed and the man was proven to be alive and plotting much bigger attacks. 

Baghdadi, believed to have been born Ibrahim Awad al-Samarrai, in the Iraqi city of Samarra in 1971, was detained in the U.S. prison camp in Iraq, Camp Bucca for three years and was released in 2009.

In 2010, he emerged as the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, which was then an offshoot that would eventually morph into ISIS.

Baghdadi transformed the militants into a well-oiled and organised fighting force.

The group changed its name in April 2013 – signalling the group’s broader ambitions of establishing a caliphate straddling the border of Iraq and Syria which strictly enforces Shariah law.

In 2013, Baghdadi released an audio statement, claiming to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and vowed to erase the “Western-imposed border with Syria.” 

He called on his followers to “tear apart” the governments in both countries and their regional backers.

In July 2014, al-Baghdadi, proclaimed a “caliphate” that covered territory in both Iraq and Syria and reports of his death have been circulated even since then.

Soon after, ISIS claimed Raqqa as a key city in its self-declared caliphate and made it a hub for the organisation’s activities and attacks in Syria, Iraq and other regions.

The terror group took over all levels of civil administration, rewriting school curriculums, establishing Islamic courts and creating police units to implement Islamic law – masterminded by al-Baghdadi. 

Earlier this year, U.S. and Iraqi authorities believed al-Baghdadi had abandoned his fighters and gone into hiding as Iraqi forces continued to make inroads into Mosul.

A month later, in April, a documentary called him the world’s most wanted man with the U.S. State Department placing a bounty of $25 million for any information leading to his location, arrest, or conviction. 

Reports pointed out that Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al Qaeda leader, is the only other person with a similar bounty.

He managed to avoid capture by Iraqi special forces “by minutes” after escaping through a trapdoor.

Reports revealed details about his escape days after al-Baghdadi’s deputy Ayad al-Jumaili was killed in an air strike.  

Reports have stated that if confirmed, Baghdadi’s death would represent a major success for the Russian military that has been supporting the Syrian regime in the country’s civil war since 2015.

His death would also be one of the biggest blows yet to the jihadist group, which is trying to defend shrinking territory in Syria and Iraq.