Amid much scepticism, it has been “confirmed” yet again that ISIS Chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights was quoted by Reuters as saying on Tuesday that it had “confirmed information” that the ISIS chief was indeed no more.
Although the Observatory is said to be a reliable news source for information about the Syrian Civil War, scepticism continues to surround Baghdadi’s supposed death, as there has been no confirmation from Iraqi and Kurdish authorities, the US Department of Defense, and the Pentagon, as per reports by Reuters.
Moreover, ISIS-affiliated websites and social media have not carried any news regarding Baghdadi’s possible death. Reuters itself claimed that it couldn’t independently verify the news.
Let us take a look at the times al-Baghdadi was said to have been killed:
- 23 June 2017: The likelihood that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed is close to 100 percent, Interfax news agency quoted the head of the defence committee in Russia's upper parliamentary house as saying on 23 June.
- 16 June 2017: Russia's Defence Ministry claimed that there was a possibility of it having killed Baghdadi during one of its air strikes, which struck a congregation of ISIS leaders on the fringes of the city of Raqqa, Syria, according to a report by Reuters.
- 12 June 2017: Unverified reports attributed to Syrian television channels claimed on 12 June that ISIS chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in an airstrike.
- 28 May 2017: On 16 June 2017, the Russian Defense Ministry had claimed that it believed it had killed the ISIS chief in an airstrike on 28 May.
- 12 June 2016: Turkish daily Yenis Safak claimed on 13 June that Baghdadi had been killed in a US airstrike in Raqqa the previous day. However, later reports claimed that the news of the ISIS chief’s death might have arisen from a digitally manipulated image.
(With inputs from Reuters, Yenis Safak, The Daily Mail)
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