|
DAMASCUS, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Syria's local TV stations cited news outlets close to the Islamic State (IS) group as declaring the death of the terror group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The pro-government Sama TV and al-Ekhbariya cited what they called news outlets affiliated with the IS as saying that al-Baghdadi was killed, without elaboration.
Meanwhile, other reports said the terror group's leader was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Syria.
On June 10, the Iraqi Al Sumariya TV cited local sources in Iraq's Nineveh province that al-Baghdadi along with other commanders of the IS was wounded overnight, when air raids targeted their hiding places near the Syrian borders.
The U.S.-led anti-terror coalition reportedly said then that it couldn't confirm the reports, apparently waiting for a stronger concrete evidence. But the coalition didn't deny carrying airstrikes at that given time and place.
Al-Baghdadi has declared himself the Caliph of all Muslims in the world, a move deemed as absurd by the majority of moderate Muslims.
His terror group has taken hold in several areas in Iraq and Syria.
Recently the U.S. coalition and its allied rebels on ground, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), unleashed a wide-scale offensive against the IS de facto capital of al-Raqqa and other key strongholds of that terror group in Syria with the aim of weakening the group.
The SDF made notable advance near al-Raqqa and the city of Manbej on the Syrian-Turkish borders.
