Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi

World’s number one terrorist group, ISIS has  announced the death of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“Daesh”, as ISIS is also called in Iraq, circulated a brief statement through its media in the town of Tal Afar in the west of Mosul, which confirmed the killing of  Al-Baghdadi without giving further details,” Iraqi news agency al-Sumaria was reported as saying on its website.

On June 16, the Russian Defence Ministry said Al-Baghdadi was likely eliminated in a strike carried out by Russian Aerospace Forces in the southern suburb city of Raqqa in May.

US authorities however said they were skeptical about the reports of the death of Al-Baghdadi who first appeared in the media in 2014 when he declared the creation of a caliphate in the Middle East and had been reported dead several times in the past.

The confirmation of Al-Baghdadi’s death is coming just a day after Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi formally declared Mosul liberated from ISIS after nearly nine months of severe fighting to dislodge the extremists from their last stronghold in Iraq.

If Al-Baghdadi is finally confirmed dead by western intelligence, he would likely be succeeded by one of his two top aides and lieutenants, Iyad Al-Obaidi and Ayad Al-Jumaidi who were both army officers during the reign of the late Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein.