WASHINGTON: Pentagon chief Jim Mattis said on Friday he can**t confirm whether or **t Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead, after reports from Syria that the Jihadist leader had been killed.
"If we knew, we would tell you -- right **w, I can´t confirm or deny it," Mattis said. "Our approach is we assume he´s alive until it´s proven otherwise, and right **w I can´t prove it otherwise."
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a longtime conflict monitor, said earlier this week it had heard from senior IS leaders in Syria´s Deir Ezzor province that Baghdadi was dead. There was ** official confirmation or denial of the news on IS-run social media outlets.
"We´ll go after him until he´s gone," Mattis said. There have been persistent rumors that Baghdadi has died in recent months. Russia´s army said in mid-June that it was seeking to verify whether it had killed the IS chief in a May air strike in Syria.
With a $25 million US bounty on his head, Baghdadi has kept a low profile but was rumored to move regularly throughout IS-held territory in Iraq and Syria. The 46-year-old Iraqi has **t been seen since making his only k**wn public appearance as "caliph" in 2014 at the Grand Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul, which was destroyed in the battle for Iraq´s second city.
07-15-2017, 03:51 PM
?US has ** proof Baghdadi is dead?
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