Politics
09:28, 18-Jul-2017
Top Kurdish official: ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is still alive
[]
Share
Copied
A top Kurdish counter-terrorism official says he's almost certain the leader of the Islamic State militant group is still alive, and is hiding out somewhere south of the Syrian city of Raqqa.
Having been involved in tracking down Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Lahur Talabany said the ISIL leader would be very difficult to find. ISIL has been losing significant ground recently as it lost the strategic city of Mosul in northern Iraq earlier this month, while it's coming under mounting pressure in Raqqa, the group's de-facto capital city.
However, officials know, despite their setbacks, ISIL still has the capacity to unleash suicide bombers and stage deadly hit-and-run attacks.