Moscow: Russia said on Thursday it has no information on the fate of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the chief of Daesh, nearly a week after the Russian military said it may have killed him in an air strike.
“I have got nothing (to report),” the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said when asked to comment on the possible death of Baghdadi in Syria last month.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has no information on the fate of Daesh’s leader Al Baghdadi, Zakharova was quoted as saying by the official Tass news agency.
Her comments came two days after the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said the assassination of Al Baghdadi has not yet been confirmed.
Last Friday, the Russian Defence Ministry reported that Al Baghdadi had been presumably killed by the air strike on Raqqa’s southern suburbs carried out by Russian warplanes.
According to the ministry, the air strike was conducted on May 28 on a command post where the Daesh leaders were discussing exit routes for militants from Raqqa through the so-called southern corridor.
US defence officials last week said they were unable to confirm the reports about Baghdadi’s death.
There have been a number of previous reports of Baghdadi’s death or him being critically injured by US-led coalition air strikes.
Baghdadi has not been seen in public since proclaiming himself “caliph” in the Iraqi city of Mosul three years ago.
In October 2011, the US officially designated Al Baghdadi as a “terrorist”. It has offered a reward of up to US$25 million (Dh91.8 million) for information leading to his capture or death.
