IS leader alive or dead?

An Iraqi Kurdish counter-terrorism official says he is 99 percent sure that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is still alive.

Mr. Lahur Talabany, senior counter-terrorism official of the Iraqi Kurdish forces - Photo: Reuters

Reuters news agency quoted Lahur Talabany, a senior counter-terrorism official of the Iraqi Kurdish forces, as saying that al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State (IS), is hiding in the southern part of the Syrian city of Raqqa.

In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Mr. Lahur Talabany emphasized: "Baghdadi is definitely alive. He is not dead. We have information that he is still alive. We believe 99% that he is still alive."

"Don't forget his background from his al Qaeda days in Iraq. He's been hiding from the security forces. He knows what he's doing," he added.

Iraqi security forces have ended three years of IS occupation of the Iraqi city of Mosul and now the terrorist group is struggling to cope with the campaign to eliminate them in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

However, Mr. Talabany said that IS is now changing its tactics and although their morale is down, it will still take three to four years to completely eradicate the rebels.

It is believed that the future leaders of IS will be a group of intelligence officers who served under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Recently, many major sources, even from media sources associated with IS, have confirmed that al-Baghdadi was killed in a Russian airstrike, but the location is different.

According to Tuoi Tre