Islamic State leader Baghdadi 'may have been killed by Russia'
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| Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi seen delivering a sermon in 2014 |
Russia's defence ministry is investigating whether one of
its air strikes in Syria killed the leader of the Islamic State militant group
(IS).
The ministry said an air strike may have killed Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi and up to 330 other fighters on 28 May.
It said the raid had targeted a meeting of the IS military
council in its de-facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria.
There have been a number of previous reports of Baghdadi's
death.
A statement by Russia's defence ministry published by the
state-funded Sputnik news agency said 30 IS commanders and up to 300 soldiers
were at the Raqqa meeting.
"According to information that is checked through
various channels, IS leader Ibrahim Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed as a
result of the strike, was also present at the meeting," it added.
Baghdadi's whereabouts have been unknown for some time,
although he was believed to be in Mosul in Iraq before a US-led coalition began
an effort to reclaim the city in October 2016.
Reuters reported that he was recently believed to have been
"hiding in thousands of square miles of desert" rather than living in
either Mosul or Raqqa.
His only public appearance since proclaiming the creation of
an IS caliphate was in a video in June 2014, in which he was seen delivering a
sermon in Mosul after IS took control of the city.
Since then, the group has lost considerable amounts of
territory and has been under pressure from air strikes by Russian-led forces
and by the US and its allies.
In March, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that
"nearly all" of Baghdadi's deputies had been killed.
"It is only a matter of time before Baghdadi himself
meets this same fate," he added.
Who is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi?
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| The Iraqi interior ministry released this image of Baghdadi in January 2014 |
Reports suggest he was a cleric in a mosque in the city around
the time of the US-led invasion in 2003.
Some believe he was already a militant jihadist during the rule
of Saddam Hussein. Others suggest he was radicalised during the four years he
was held at Camp Bucca, a US facility in southern Iraq where many al-Qaeda
commanders were detained.
He emerged as the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, one of the groups
that later became Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (IS), in 2010.
In October 2011, the US officially designated Baghdadi as
"terrorist" and offered a $10m (then £6.4m) reward for
information leading to his capture or death.
IS went on to seize Mosul, Iraq's second-biggest city, in June
2014 before claiming swathes of territory and launching deadly attacks on
Western cities, including Paris in November 2015.
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