Daesh Head's Son Killed in Militants' Attack on Syrian Forces – Reports
In early May, Iraqi officials reported the possibility that Daesh* leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is operating out of the desert area near Syria's border with Iraq, one of the few parts of the country it continues to control.
Hudayfah al-Badri, son of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been killed in the central Syrian province of Homs, according to the Telegram channel Directorate 4 which monitors terrorists' activity.
The channel reported that al-Badri was obliterated during an attack by militants on the positions of Syrian and Russian forces located near one of the thermal power plants in Homs province.
On May 8, Fox News cited Abu Ali al-Basri, director-general of the intelligence and counter-terrorism office of the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, as saying that the Daesh leader is believed to be still at large.
"The last information we have is he [al-Baghdadi] is in Al-Hajin in Syria, 18 miles from the border in Deir ez-Zor province," Abu Ali al-Basri said.
He was echoed by Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, spokesperson for the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and for the Joint Operations Command, who confirmed al-Baghdadi's location on the border east of the Euphrates River, in an area still controlled by the terrorists.
"It is not difficult for him to hide in the Syrian desert," Rasool noted.
n April, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that despite successful counter-terrorism missions in Syria and Iraq, Daesh is still capable of conducting raids in different regions across the world, and that new forms of international cooperation are needed to confront the terrorist group.
Upon proclaiming itself a global caliphate in 2014, Daesh managed to seize large areas of western Iraq and eastern Syria in 2015, imposing its own radical form of Sharia law there.
As a result of subsequent anti-terrorist efforts by the Syrian government and Russia, as well as the Iraqi government in neighboring Iraq and the US-led coalition, Daesh has lost over 90 percent of the territory it once controlled in Syria and Iraq, including its strongholds in Deir ez-Zor, Mosul and Raqqa.
- Source : Sputnik News
