UN unable to confirm death of ISIL leader Baghdadi

TEHRAN (defapress) – The UN cannot confirm through independent sources that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIL leader was killed in a Russian airstrike, UN Secretary-General spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a briefing on Friday.

News ID: 65182

Date: 17 June 2017 - 14:56

"We have no independent confirmation from our end," Dujarric said. "We are not involved first hand in any of the military or security operations. I don't have any information besides what we've read in the media."

Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry said that it was verifying information that ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi could have been killed in a Russian Aerospace Forces strike, carried out on May 28.

The ministry released a photo demonstrating the results of the Russia's Aerospace Forces' airstrike conducted on May 28 against Daesh headquarters.

A photo dated May 13 shows four buildings of ISIL headquarters. However, the photo dated May 28 shows that the buildings hit by the Russian airstrike have been completely destroyed.