DAMASCUS: The leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is still alive according to an Iraqi intelligence chief and US officials.
Baghdadi is reportedly hiding out in the desert on the Syrian side of the Syria-Iraq border northeast of Deir Ezzor province, according to The Telegraph.
It is believed that injury and poor health have forced Baghdadi to relinquish control of the terror group.
Baghdadi, who suffers from diabetes, is thought to have been left unable to walk unassisted from injuries incurred from a raid in 2015 which were exasperated by another last May.
Earlier, Russia had claimed that it killed the reclusive leader, who was not seen in public since declaring the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)’s caliphate from the Iraqi city of Mosul in July 2014, in an air strike on a meeting of senior Isil commanders near Raqqa on May 28.
However, there was no evidence to back up the claim and the same was questioned by the US-led coalition against Isil at that time.