The Russian defence ministry says it believes it may have killed the Isis leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in an air strike south of Raqqa, Syria. In a statement, the ministry said it was still seeking confirmation following the strike in late May.

The air strike targeted a meeting of Isis leaders on 28 May, Russian news agencies cited the defence ministry as saying.

"According to the information which is now being checked via various channels, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was eliminated by the air strike, was also present at the meeting," RIA news agency quoted the ministry as saying.

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Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said Russia has not yet confirmed the death of Baghdadi, and warned against exaggerating the significance of his possible demise. He said the "beheading of terrorist groups has always been presented with great enthusiasm, however, history shows that the fighting capacity of these structures [terror groups] were then restored" afterwards.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Petrov declined to comment on the reports, saying only that that Russian President Vladimir Putin received reports from the ministry on a regular basis.

And the US-led coalition said it was unable to verify that Baghdadi had been killed.

The statement from the Russian defence ministry claimed the 28 May strike killed around 30 mid-level Isis leaders and another 300 fighters, during a meeting of Isis's "military council" on the southern outskirts of Raqqa. 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.

Russia said multiple Su-24 and Su-25 aircraft were involved in the strike, acting upon intelligence captured by drone footage. It said it had informed the US in advance of the strike.

Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Isis' weapons factories Show all 11 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Isis' weapons factories 1/11 A mortar round fin manufactured by Isis in Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 2/11 Isis rocket components discovered in Gogjali, Mosul, Iraq in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 3/11 Isis mortars discovered near Karamlais, Iraq, in November 2016 CAR 4/11 An Isis rocket launch frame in Qaraqosh, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 5/11 A memo from Isis' COSQC on quality control at a manufacturing facility in Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 6/11 Electrically-operated initiators manufactured by Isis in forces Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 7/11 Isis mortar tubes at a manufacturing facility in Karamlais, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 8/11 An Isis mortar production facility discovered in Gogjali, Mosul, in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 9/11 An Isis weapons manufacturing facilities near Mosul in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 10/11 Stocks of French-manufactured Sorbitol, Latvian potassium nitrate and Lebanese sugar at an Isis weapons factory in Iraq Conflict Armament Research 11/11 A destroyed Isis weapons facility in Qaraqosh, Iraq, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 1/11 A mortar round fin manufactured by Isis in Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 2/11 Isis rocket components discovered in Gogjali, Mosul, Iraq in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 3/11 Isis mortars discovered near Karamlais, Iraq, in November 2016 CAR 4/11 An Isis rocket launch frame in Qaraqosh, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 5/11 A memo from Isis' COSQC on quality control at a manufacturing facility in Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 6/11 Electrically-operated initiators manufactured by Isis in forces Gogjali, Mosul, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 7/11 Isis mortar tubes at a manufacturing facility in Karamlais, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 8/11 An Isis mortar production facility discovered in Gogjali, Mosul, in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 9/11 An Isis weapons manufacturing facilities near Mosul in November 2016 Conflict Armament Research 10/11 Stocks of French-manufactured Sorbitol, Latvian potassium nitrate and Lebanese sugar at an Isis weapons factory in Iraq Conflict Armament Research 11/11 A destroyed Isis weapons facility in Qaraqosh, Iraq, November 2016 Conflict Armament Research

Baghdadi rose to international prominence when he declared the territories occupied by the Isis militancy a so-called "caliphate" during a rare public appearance in Mosul in the summer of 2014.

There have been multiple previous unverified reports of his death. In mid-June, a doctored online statement purporting to be from Isis's Amaq news agency claimed Baghdadi had been killed in a US air strike.

In March, the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said "nearly all" Baghdadi's deputies had been killed as Isis's territory was squeezed in both Syria and Iraq. He said it was "only a matter of time before Baghdadi himself meets this same fate".</s>The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday that long-range bombers had fired a series of cruise missiles at Islamic State targets around the Syrian city of Raqqa.

The ministry said in a statement that the Tupolev-95 bombers had taken off from Russia and flown over Iran and Iraq to get to Syria where it said they had successfully targeted militant training camps and a command point.

Russia carried out a series of sustained attacks on Raqqa in late 2015, but has since focussed its fire power around Aleppo and other rebel-held areas.</s>Russia said Friday it was verifying whether it had killed the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in an airstrike targeting a meeting of ISIL leaders just outside the group’s de facto capital in Syria, dealing a potentially severe blow to the extremist group as it fights to hang on to its strongholds in Syria and Iraq.

The Russian Defence Ministry claimed that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a Russian strike in late May along with other senior group commanders, adding that the information about his death was still “being verified through various channels.”

Asked later about that claim at a news conference in Moscow, however, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “I don’t have a 100-per cent confirmation of the information.”

There had been previous reports of al-Baghdadi being killed but they did not turn out to be true. The ISIL leader last released an audio on Nov. 3, urging his followers to keep up the fight for Mosul as they defend the Iraqi city against a major offensive that began weeks earlier.

The spokesman for the U.S.-led anti-ISIL coalition said in a statement Friday he could not confirm the Russian claim.

The report of al-Baghdadi’s death comes as ISIL suffers major setbacks in which they have lost wide areas of territory and both of their strongholds — Mosul in Iraq and Syria’s Raqqa. Both are under attack by various groups who are fighting under the cover of airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition.

As the militants take a pounding in their eroding strongholds, U.S. officials and Syrian activists say many commanders have fled Mosul and Raqqa in recent months for Mayadeen, a remote town in the heart of Syria’s ISIL-controlled, Euphrates River valley near the Iraqi border. Their relocation could extend the group’s ability to wreak havoc in the region and beyond for months to come.

Most recently, the group claimed responsibility for attacks in Iran’s parliament and a shrine to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran, killing at least 17 people and injuring more than 50. It also claimed responsibility for the June 3 London attack that killed eight people. Both attacks would have taken place after al-Baghdadi’s alleged killing.

Lavrov, at the press conference, added on a cautious note that if al-Baghdadi’s death is confirmed, its importance mustn’t be overestimated. Lavrov said that “past examples of similar actions to strike the leadership of terrorist groups were presented with much enthusiasm and pomp, but the experience shows that those structures later regained their capability.”

The claim of al-Baghdadi’s possible demise also comes nearly three years to the day after he declared himself the leader of an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria, from a historic mosque in Mosul.

If confirmed, al-Baghdadi’s death would mark a major military success for Russia, which has conducted a military campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad since September 2015.

It is not clear who would replace al-Baghdadi if he was killed — the group has lost many of its senior commanders, killed in U.S.-led airstrikes, including Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, said by U.S. officials to be the No. 2 leader of the group. Al-Hayali was killed in an August 2015 airstrike by the U.S. in Iraq. Another top figure was Abu Ali al-Anbari, the extremist group’s leading finance official who was killed in 2016.

One of the Islamic State’s best known commanders, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, the ISIL spokesman who frequently releases audio messages calling for stepped-up attacks, was also killed last year.

The Defence Ministry said the air raid on May 28 that targeted an ISIL meeting held on the southern outskirts of Raqqa in Syria also killed about 30 mid-level militant leaders and about 300 other fighters.

The ministry said the ISIL leaders were gathered to discuss the group’s withdrawal from Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital. It said the military began planning the hit after getting word that the group’s leadership was to meet in order to plan ISIL’s exit to the south.

The Russian military sent drones to monitor the area and then dispatched a group of Su-34 bombers and Su-35 fighter jets to hit the ISIL gathering.

“According to the information that is being verified through various channels, ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi also attended the meeting and was killed in the airstrike,” the military said in a statement.

The Defence Ministry added that it had warned the U.S. of the coming strike.

Syrian opposition activists reported airstrikes on May 28 south of Raqqa that killed more than a dozen people.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks Syria’s war, said airstrikes on the road linked the villages of Ratla and Kasrat killed 18 people while the activist-operated Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently said 17 civilians were killed in the airstrike on buses carrying civilians.

The Observatory said the dead included 10 Islamic State group members. It did not elaborate at the time.

The Russian ministry said that among other militant leaders killed in the raid were ISIL leaders Abu al-Khadji al-Mysri, Ibrahim al-Naef al-Khadj and Suleiman al-Shauah.

Al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate in Syria and Iraq in June 2014 days after his fighters captured Mosul, the largest city they ever held. The group has since horrified the world with its atrocities in areas they held as well as attacks they claimed around the world that killed hundreds.

Al-Baghdadi is a nom de guerre for a man identified as Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai. The U.S. is offering a $25 million reward for information leading to his death or capture.

Alexei Pushkov, the head of the committee for information policies at the upper house of the Russian parliament tweeted that “if confirmed, al-Baghdadi’s death will be a powerful blow to the IS. It has been retreating on all fronts, and the death of its leader will accelerate its demise.”

 

 With files from Zeina Karam</s>BREAKING | Russia Says It Has Killed ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Airstrike

Russia has claimed it killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and scores of other militant leaders.

The defence ministry said today that al-Baghdadi was killed in a Russian strike in late May along with other senior group commanders.

It said the air raid on May 28 that targeted an IS meeting held on the southern outskirts of Raqqa in Syria also killed about 30 mid-level militant leaders and about 300 other fighters.

The ministry said the strike came as IS leaders gathered to discuss the group’s withdrawal from Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital.

Syrian state TV claimed that al-Baghdadi, the world’s most wanted terrorist, was killed last weekend. Previous claims that he had been killed were found to be untrue and seen as propaganda to sway public opinion.

However, this is the first confirmation from sources outside the war torn country.

It was thought that he was hiding out in Iraq, but intelligence agencies say al-Baghdadi, who had a $25,000,000 bounty on his head, fled to Syria during the battle to retake Mosul.

This is a breaking news story and is being updated with more information as it comes.

The post BREAKING | Russia Says It Has Killed ISIS Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Airstrike appeared first on SIGNAL.

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Also, Like us on facebook</s>Russia's military claimed Friday that it may have killed the Islamic State group leader in an airstrike in late May.

The country's defense ministry said it was verifying reports that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed on the southern outskirts of Syria’s Raqqa on May 28 along with other several senior commanders from the extremist group.

However, there was no independent confirmation and previous reports of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's death have turned out to be false.

Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military's operational name for its actions against the Islamic State, or ISIS, in Iraq and Syria did not immediately return a request for comment.

Russia's defense ministry said Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed as he attended a meeting to discuss ISIS's withdrawal from Raqqa, its de facto capital.

"The strike, carried out by Su-35 and Su-34 jets, destroyed high-ranking commanders of the terrorist group, who were part of the so-called military council of the ISIS, and also some 30 middle ranking field commanders and up to 300 militants who were their bodyguards," the ministry said.

If Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's death is confirmed it would be a major blow to the jihadist group and self-declared caliphate as it is in retreat across Iraq and Syria.

The U.S. State Department's "Reward for Justice" program has a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture.

"Under al-Baghdadi, (ISIS) has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians in the Middle East, including the brutal murder of numerous civilian hostages from Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Al-Baghdadi has taken credit for numerous terrorist attacks in Iraq since 2011, killing thousands of his fellow Iraqi citizens," the RFJ's "Wanted" profile of him says.</s>Russia 'may have killed' ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to new reports.

Russia's defence ministry says it targeted a meeting of IS leaders in Raqqa where they believe al-Baghdadi was in attendance.

The ministry has started an investigation as to whether their air strike on Syria could have been responsible for the militant's death.

It comes after unverified reports in Syrian state media that the leader of Islamic State was killed in an air strike on May 28.

The defence ministry said in a statement: "According to information that is being 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.

"As a result of the Su-35 and Su-34 air strikes, high-ranking commanders of the terrorist group that were part of the so-called military council of IGIL, as well as about 30 middle-level field commanders and up to 300 militants of their personal protection, were killed.

"Among the liquidated terrorists are the emir of Rakki Abu al-Hadji al-Mysri, the emir Ibrahim An-Naef al-Hajj, who controlled the area from the city of Rakki up to the present. Es-Suhne and the head of the security service of IGIL, Suleiman Al-Shawah."

The statement added: "During the verification of the information, it was possible to find out in that the purpose of the meeting was planning the routes for the exit of militants from Raqqa through the so-called 'southern corridor'."

Heavy artillery was dropped across the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa throughout the day, with footage online posted by ISIS news agency Amaq revealing the devastation caused.

The Islamic State leader has a £20million bounty on his head because his hate-filled sermons inspired suicide attacks across Europe. There have been previous reports of al-Baghdadi's death, which turned out to be untrue.

Recent evidence unearthed for a documentary shows Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi escaped capture in Iraq by just minutes back in 2013, before unleashing his army of jihadis on the world.

The revelation has emerged as Iraqi forces claimed al-Baghdadi’s deputy, Ayad al-Jumaili, was killed in an air strike near Iraq’s border with Syria.

Jumaili, an intelligence officer under Saddam Hussein, was described in an Iraqi TV report as Islamic State’s “second-in-command” and “war minister”.

As Iraqi forces besiege al-Baghdadi’s former stronghold in Mosul, the caliphate he declared in the city’s main mosque back in 2014 is crumbling apart.

The film, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: In The Footsteps Of The Most Wanted Man In The World, suggests swifter reactions earlier in the 45-year-old’s rise to power might have brought an end to the IS reign of terror sooner.

Moroccan documentary maker Sofia Amara explains how elite troops from Iraq’s Falcon Brigade missed out on capturing him by just minutes.

ISIS 'can plant bombs in laptops and mobile phones that will get through airport screening undetected'

Like Saddam Hussein before him, al-Baghdadi was hiding in a basement bolthole, accessed through a disguised entrance in a tiled floor.

He escaped the hideout in northern Baghdad before soldiers arrived, leaving behind a cache of weapons, documents and black IS flags – the now familiar symbol of the reviled terror network.

The mission’s failure enabled the extremist, born in the Iraqi city of Samarra, to become the world’s most wanted man at the helm of a self-declared caliphate across his home country and neighbouring Syria.

It also allowed IS to inspire a series of bloody terrorist atrocities.

Western jihadis like Paris grocery store attacker Amedy Coulibaly, and the two French-born militants who slit the throat of a Catholic priest in Rouen last year, have claimed allegiance to IS

Since being filmed apparently preaching from the pulpit inside Mosul’s Great Mosque of al-Nuri in July 2014, al-Baghdadi has not been seen in public.

UK's most dangerous terrorists will be held in 'jail within a jail' to stop extremists radicalising other prisoners

And despite being the target of multiple bombing raids, analysts believe he remains at large.

He was reportedly badly wounded during an airstrike in the same district in March 2015. As with so many stories surrounding al-Baghdadi, what really happened remains a mystery.

In the film, Amara claims she too is holed up near the Iraq-Syria border.

She spent a year following in the elusive footsteps of the man previously referred to by his acolytes as First Emir of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Her research brought her into contact with his childhood friends, a former wife and several sex slaves.

The most telling anecdotes came from one of the girls, called Suzanne, who claims she was held as recently as last year. She claimed his home at the time was “like a big whorehouse”.

“There was sex all the time,” she says. “His wives were fighting over who would wear more make-up than the other.

“They used to bring girls for him to have sex with, and he would stay in the house and never go fighting.”

Another girl, who remains in hiding, told Amara she knew kidnapped ­American aid worker Kayla Mueller.

Kayla, who was abducted in Aleppo in 2013, was reportedly forced to marry al-Baghdadi, who raped her repeatedly. The American was killed in a Jordanian airstrike on IS-controlled Raqqa in 2015.

Those who knew al-Baghdadi as a child paint a very different picture.

Australian baby EXECUTED by ISIS 'in revenge' after father tried to flee bloody conflict zone

He came from a poor family living in the Tobji suburb of northern Baghdad.

Another described the young al-­Baghdadi as a “nice boy”, who was funny and shy. Determined to do well under Saddam Hussein’s regime al-­Baghdadi dreamed of becoming a lawyer but failed to secure good enough grades. He focused his attentions on the Iraqi Army but was again turned away, this time because he was short-sighted.

A former wife, Saja, also agreed to speak at length for the first time for the documentary, which was shown on French television last month.

Married to the extremist for only three months when he was a Muslim cleric in Baghdad, she insists she never loved him.

She reveals he would come home from his work at university, have dinner alone and take care of his cat.

One of his many purported children is Hagar, Saja’s daughter. The nine-year-old and her mum are in hiding from IS following threats to their lives.

Little Hagar, who plays with a water pistol in the film, only knows her father as a “bad man”, but not his true identity.

Her mother claims: “She is punished because she is the daughter of the most wanted criminal in the world.”

Chilling footage shows ISIS terrorist using child as a human shield to walk through streets in Mosul

Those who knew al-Baghdadi as an intense Muslim scholar at university cannot believe his rise to power.

Although he held a pathological hatred of the West from an early age, few thought he would go on to create the biggest terror threat the world has ever seen.

The experience of being imprisoned by US forces after the invasion of Iraq seems to have been a formative factor.

One fellow inmate, who knew him at the grim desert prison Camp Bucca, said: “He has undergone a radical transformation. I would never have thought he would become the person he is now.”</s>Russia’s Defense Ministry says it is investigating reports that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in one of its airstrikes in Syria last month.

The airstrike on May 28 was carried out on the outskirts of the militant group’s de facto capital Raqqa, on a command post where ISIS leaders were meeting, according to Russian state media reports.

 “According to information, which is being verified via different channels, the meeting was also attended by the (ISIS) leader Ibrahim Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was eliminated in the strike,” the ministry said, according to the TASS report in English. Other state media reported that more than 300 “terrorists” were killed in the strike.</s>The Russian military claims it has killed the leader of the Islamic State group in an airstrike.

The ministry said on Friday that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a Russian strike in late May along with other senior group commanders.

It said the air raid on May 28 that targeted an IS meeting held on the southern outskirts of Raqqa in Syria also killed about 30 mid-level militant leaders and about 300 other fighters.

The ministry said the strike came as IS leaders gathered to discuss the group’s withdrawal from Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital.</s>Russia has said it is investigating whether one of its air strikes killed Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Isis terror group. The ministry of defence said an air strike hit a meeting of Isis leaders in Raqqa, Syria, on 28 May.

"According to information that is being 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," the ministry said in a statement, according to Russia Today.

This is not the first time that Baghdadi, who has rarely made any public appearance since declaring the creation of Isis in 2013, has been reported dead.

In the most recent instance, Syrian state TV said earlier in June that Baghdadi had been killed while he was caught in a heavy artillery barrage in Raqqa, which Isis captured in 2014.

Raqqa has witnessed intensified fighting in recent days after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias supported by a US-led coalition – started an offensive to recapture Raqqa from Isis .

Since the offensive began on 6 June, the SDF has recaptured territories to the west, east and north of the city. However, the UN has also warned that US air strikes conducted in support of the offensive are endangering a "staggering number" of civilians.</s>Russia's Defense Ministry says it is investigating reports that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in one of its airstrikes in Syria last month.

The airstrike on May 28 was carried out on the outskirts of the militant group's de facto capital Raqqa, on a command post where ISIS leaders were meeting, according to Russian state media reports.

"According to information, which is being verified via different channels, the meeting was also attended by the (ISIS) leader Ibrahim Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was eliminated in the strike," the ministry said, according to the TASS report in English. Other state media reported that more than 300 "terrorists" were killed in the strike.

The leaders were discussing their exit from the city through the so-called southern corridor, the ministry said.

The airstrike was carried out following drone footage confirmation of the council's meeting location, state-run Sputnik reports.

CNN is not able to verify the Russian claims, and there have been multiple reports of al-Baghdadi's death in the past that have turned out to be false.

Officials had long described the ISIS leader as enemy No. 1 in the fight against ISIS, and speculation had swirled over his whereabouts.

Baghdadi has kept a low profile, speaking out in occasional videos and audio messages.

He gave a sermon at a mosque in the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014, in which he declared himself the leader of his envisages Islamic caliphate. The sermon was filmed and widely watched around the world.

US forces captured him in Falluja, Iraq, in 2004. At the time, he was considered a low-level al Qaeda member.

He was freed in 2009, and within a year was the leader of Iraq's al Qaeda affiliate, heading up a renewed campaign of bombings and assassinations. Al Qaeda leaders later severed relations with him, saying he was insubordinate, killing too many civilians.

As the leader of ISIS -- the militant group that declared itself the Islamic State as it grabbed swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria -- he earned a reputation for brutality.

The extremist group brought a reign of terror and intimidation into areas where they gained control. And the brutality has continued, despite military setbacks. In one reported case, ISIS slaughtered 163 civilians and left their bodies in the street for days, the United Nations said.

US authorities offered a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture.
The Russian Ministry of Defence says its forces may have killed ISIL's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an airstrike, south of Raqqa on 28 May, and currently is seeking confirmation.