Islamic State militant group (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi makes his first and only known public appearance at the Grand al-Nuri mosque in the center of Iraq’s second city, Mosul, July 5, 2014. Iran, which has actively fought ISIS abroad for years, said it confirmed Baghdadi’s death, weeks after Russia said it likely killed the cleric in an airstrike in Syria’s Raqqa.
SOCIAL MEDIA/REUTERS TV
ISIS’ leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is definitely dead, Iran’s state news agency quoted a representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying on Thursday.
“Terrorist Baghdadi is definitely dead,” cleric Ali Shirazi, who is representative to the Quds force, told IRNA without elaborating.
The secretive ISIS leader has frequently been reported killed or wounded since he declared a caliphate to rule over all Muslims from a mosque in Mosul in 2014, after his fighters seized large areas of northern Iraq.
Comments reflect the opinions of the visitor and not those of Libyan Express, its editorial board or staff.