Human Rights Agency Confirms ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s Death:- War monitor - the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), has confirmed the death of ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Rami Abdulrahman, the Director of the UK-based group told a leading news channel that, “(We have) confirmed information from leaders, including one of the first rank, in [ISIS territory] in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor.”

However, the ISIS official news agency Amaq did not give any official confirmation. The SOHR sources did not mention when Baghdadi supposedly died, or how. It only said that for the last three months, he is supposed to have been living in the Deir Ezzor area. The Pentagon, Kurdish and Iraqi sources were all quick to say they could not support the SOHR report.

After the SOHR claim surfaced, Sebastian Gorka, Deputy Assistant to US President Donald Trump, said in an interview with a news channel, “We take any report of this nature with a large dose of salt.”

“We will verify it. We will look at the intelligence available... and we will give a statement when we have the requisite facts.”

For Baghdadi’s capture, the US put up a USD25 million, which is the same offered for al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and his successor Ayman al-Zawahri.

However, it is not clear yet, if any individual or organization will claim the bounty. The notorious jihadi, to evade detection, is believed to be hiding in the regions around the Syria-Iraq border, moving frequently and avoiding telecommunications.

Since the cleric made his only public appearance announcing the creation of ISIS so-called caliphate from the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014, the rumors of his death have been reported frequently. The Russian Foreign Ministry, in June, claimed to have carried an air strike in Syria. This attack killed Baghdadi and several other high profile Isis leaders, but there was no evidence backing up the claim. At that time, Washington DC said it could not substantiate the death, and Western and Iraqi officials have been skeptical.

The UK-based SOHR is a respected human rights and war crimes monitor utilizing sources on the ground in Syria with a credible track record reporting on the civil war. If the reports are true, it will be a biggest blow yet to the jihadist organization which is rapidly losing territory across Syria and Iraq.

The Iraqi army, last week, officially declared ISIS de facto Iraqi capital of Mosul emancipated from the militants, marking the destruction of one half of the so-called caliphate.

SUPRAJA