FILE PHOTO: A man purported to be the reclusive leader of the militant Islamic State Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi making what would have been his first public appearance, at a mosque in the centre of Iraq’s second city, Mosul, according to a video recording posted on the Internet on July 5, 2014, in this still image taken from video.Social Media Website via Reuters TV/File Photo

The Islamic State leaders killed in Iraq and Syria since the U.S.-led coalition began its air strikes include Abu Ali al-Anbari, Baghdadi’s deputy; the group’s “minister of war”, Abu Omar al-Shishani, a close military adviser to Baghdadi; and Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, one of its most prominent and longest-serving leaders. READ MORE: The Yazidi men left behind - 'ISIL destroyed us'

Russia's defence ministry said in June that it might have killed Baghdadi when one of its air strikes hit a gathering of ISIL commanders on the outskirts of the Syrian city of Raqqa, but Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials have been sceptical

Deir az Zor remains largely under ISIL control even as the group is losing territory elsewhere in the country and in neighbouring Iraq. The group said it received “reliable information from a first-line commander of the ‘Islamic State’ organization and second-line commanders of the organization, descended from the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor” who confirmed that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead. Abdulrahman said Observatory sources in Syria's eastern town of Deir al-Zor had been told by Islamic State sources that Baghdadi had died "but they did not specify when". As far back as December 2012, Iraqi officials claimed that they had captured Baghdadi in Baghdad. The U.S. confirmed that Russia did conduct a strike in that area on that date, but as to al-Baghdadi’s fate, a Pentagon spokesman said: “We have no information to corroborate those reports.” The circumstances surrounding his alleged death were also questionable. 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 Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is confirmed dead, according to information from tribal leaders close to ISIL in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate. In June, Russia said it had "most likely" killed al-Baghdadi and several other high profile ISIL leaders in an airstrike but provided no evidence.