The Islamic State jihadist group's alleged leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed in an air raid in Syria by the United States led coalition, reports said on Tuesday.
Baghdadi died in the air strike on IS's stronghold of Raqqa in northern Syria, Iranian state media and pro-government Turkish daily Yenis Safak said, citing IS-affiliated Arabic news agency al-Amaq.
The statement published by Amaq said IS's 'Caliph' Baghdadi had been killed on Sunday, according to the media reports.
"Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed by coalition airstrikes on Raqqa on the fifth day of Ramadan,” said the statement.
The coalition did not immediately comment on the report.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iraqi TV channel 'Al-Sumaria' cited unnamed local sources in the northern Iraqi province of Nineveh, that Baghadi had been wounded on Sunday in a coalition air strike on a location 65 kilometres west of the IS-held city of Mosul.
US TV network CNN on Tuesday cited US defence officials as saying they received credible intelligence that Baghdadi, who has a 25 million dollar bounty on his head, has moved around within the past six months and had travelled to Mosul.
Baghdadi was reported to have been seriously wounded on 18 March last year in a coalition airstrike on the al-Baaj District, in Nineveh, near the Syrian border.
.jpg)
