Russia has no confirmation of IS leader Baghdadi’s death: Interfax

Moscow said on Friday its forces may have killed the secretive Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but Washington said it could not corroborate the death.

Russia said on Tuesday it could not confirm that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been killed in an air strike in Syria last month, the Interfax news agency quoted deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov as saying.

A man purported to be the reclusive leader of Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, making what would have been his first public appearance, at a mosque in the centre of Iraq's second city, Mosul. (Reuters File Photo)

Moscow said on Friday its forces may have killed the secretive Islamic State leader, but Washington said it could not corroborate the death and Western and Iraqi officials were sceptical.