Elusive Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is probably still alive and likely hiding in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, a senior US general said Thursday.
"We're looking for him every day. I don't think he's dead," Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, commander of the counter-IS coalition in Iraq and Syria, told reporters in a conference call.
Townsend admitted he didn't "have a clue" where Baghdad is precisely, but believes he may have fled with many other IS soldiers into the Middle Euphrates region stretching from Syria to Iraq, after coalition and local force assaults on the IS bastions of Mosul, Raqa and Tal Afar.
"The last stand of ISIS will be in the Middle Euphrates River Valley," Townsend said.
"When we find him, I think we'll just try to kill him first. It's probably not worth all the trouble to try and capture him."
With a $25 million US bounty on his head, Iraq-born Baghdadi has successfully avoided an intense effort to seek him out for six years or more.
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a longtime conflict monitor, said in mid-June that it had heard from senior IS leaders in Syria's Deir Ezzor province that Baghdadi was dead.
Russia's army said in mid-June that it was seeking to verify whether it had killed him in a May air strike in Syria.
"I've seen no convincing evidence, intelligence, or open-source or other rumor or otherwise that he's dead…. There are also some indicators in intelligence channels that he's still alive," said Townsend.
Britain will send more troops to Iraq to bolster IS fight
London (AFP) Aug 31, 2017 –
Britain will send a small contingent of expert troops to Iraq to help coalition forces drive out Islamic State jihadists, Defence Minister Michael Fallon said Thursday.
"We are stepping up our contribution to the fight against Daesh (IS) and fulfilling Britain's role as a key player in the global coalition," Fallon said in a statement.
"These extra troops will help support operations to bring the defeat of Daesh a step closer."
The 44 Royal Engineers are to be deployed for six months at the Al-Asad airbase in Anbar Province, in western Iraq, to build infrastructure including accommodation and offices.
This brings the number of British troops at the airbase to more than 300 and the total in Iraq to around 600.
The airbase also houses hundreds of US advisers as well as Iraqi and Danish troops.
Anbar, a sprawling desert province that borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, has long been an insurgent stronghold, and IS already controlled parts of it when it swept through Iraq in 2014 to take control of roughly a third of the country.
Pro-government forces have since retaken most towns and cities in Anbar, but the jihadists still hold several areas along the border with Syria.
Earlier Thursday, Iraq declared that its forces had retaken the northern city of Tal Afar and the surrounding region of Nineveh, in another victory against the jihadist group.
IS now controls barely 10 percent of the country, according to the US-led international coalition ranged against the jihadists.
Kremlin says 'contradictory' reports on Baghdadi death
Moscow on Monday said it was struggling to confirm if the leader of the Islamic State group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead or alive, a month after reporting his possible demise.
The Russian army said in June that it was trying to verify information that its jets killed Baghdadi during a bombing raid near the IS stronghold of Raqa in Syria.
But over a month after the announcement Kremlin s … read more
