Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ‘confirmed dead’, Syrian human rights group says

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said on Tuesday it had “confirmed information” from top Islamic State leaders about the death of the jihadist organisation’s chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“Top tier commanders from IS who are present in Deir-ez-Zor province have confirmed the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, emir of the Islamic State group, to the Observatory,” the monitor’s director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

“We learned of it today but we do not know when he died or how.”

Deir-ez-Zor, in eastern Syria, remains largely under IS control even as the group loses territory elsewhere in the country and in neighbouring Iraq.