Iraqi Source:

Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi Alive, Disguising in Syria

TEHRAN (defapress)- Iraqi sources claimed ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is alive and hiding in Syria behind the borders with Iraq amid contradictory reports about his whereabouts.

News ID: 75738

Date: 20 February 2019 - 16:00

"Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is still alive and is in Syria," the Arabic-language service of Russia Today (RT) television quoted an Iraqi intelligence source as saying on condition of anonymity.

The source said that al-Baghdadi has moved along Iraq-Syria border while disguising and in the absence of his armed men or security convoys.

The local media also reported that al-Baghdadi is constantly relocating in Syria for the fear of being identified. They said he is moving as an ordinary man.

The news comes as there are contradictory reports on his life, some saying that al-Baghdadi is dead while others saying he is alive.

In a relevant development last week, a senior source in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is being protected by the Americans in Eastern Syria, adding that Washington plans to play a Hollywood-like scenario to declare end of the ISIL caliphate.

The Arabic-language website of Sputnik news agency quoted the source as saying that Baghdadi is at present being heavily protected by the American forces in a secret place in Eastern Euphrates region.

He added that the Americans are waiting for an opportunity to conduct heliborne operations by their marine forces in Southeastern Deir Ezzur and and declare the capture of al-Baghdadi and end of ISIL on footage.

The source insisted that the time for the "above-mentioned theater is close", adding that the American forces have held SDF back from further advances in ISIL-occupied regions in Eastern Euphrates to play the scenario.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the country would likely announce next week that all of the ISIL terrorist group caliphate had been retaken in Syria and Iraq.

"It should be formally announced, sometime probably next week, that we'll have 100 percent of the caliphate," Trump stated during his remarks at a ministerial meeting of US-led coalition member states.

Earlier, the American president said during his second State of the Union address that it was time to return US troops deployed in Syria back home.

In December, Trump declared the ISIL terrorist group defeated in Syria, and announced the US troop pullout from the country but gave no timeline.

Also, a senior US administration official told reporters that Syria’s Al-Tanf region would be the last place in the country that American troops leave as they implemented a planned withdrawal.

"In terms of Al-Tanf — that is, in terms of the drawdown plans — Al-Tanf would be the last place that we would withdraw from, and I think that’s something that has not been scheduled; it would be conditions-based," the official noted.

Message end/