Islamic State’s top leaders in Iraq conceded that the Jihadist organization has been defeated in the battle for Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, and also appeared to confirm recent Russian and Iranian media reports about the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS.
On Friday, during mandatory prayers, Abu Barra al-Mawseli — a prominent ISIS leader and the deputy mayor of Tal-Afar ISIS’ last stronghold in northeastern Iraq — delivered a sermon in which he admitted Islamic State has been defeated in Mosul.
During the same sermon, al-Mawseli announced that Tal-Afar would be the new temporary capital of ISIS’ fast shrinking Caliphate in Iraq until Mosul would be retaken.
A few miles from where al-Mawseli delivered his sermon, Abu Qutaiba, a senior aide to ISIS boss al-Baghdadi, burst into tears when mentioned the name of the Islamic State leader during his sermon.
After mentioning al-Baghdadi’s name, Qutaiba cried and recited a Muslim prayer for the deceased, a local source told Alsumaria News in Iraq.
The top ISIS leader appeared to confirm Russian and Iranian claims that al-Baghdadi died during a Russian airstrike on an ISIS headquarters in a southern suburb of Raqqa the capital of the Caliphate at the end of May.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced the death of al-Baghdadi "with a high degree of certainty” a couple of days after the airstrike on the gathering of ISIS top commanders after "checking information.”
"According to the Russian Defense Ministry, it is highly likely that Daesh leader al-Baghdadi was eliminated as a result of a Russian Aerospace Forces strike on the terrorists’ command post in the southern suburb of the city of Raqqa in late May this year,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov said at the time.
An event that took place Saturday gave more weight to the Alsumaria News report about the confirmation of the death of al-Baghdadi.
The AhlulBayt News Agency, a Shia outlet in Iraq, reported that a group of ISIS’ terrorists apparently arrested Qutaiba after the incident in the mosque in Tal-Afar.
The news agency reported "a group of ISIS militants cordoned off Abu Qutaiba’s house in Tal Afar (west of Mosul) and took him to an unknown destination.”
The apparent confirmation about al-Baghdadi’s death coincides with reports about a power struggle within the ranks of Islamic State’s leadership over its top leadership spot.
The State Department and the Pentagon have not yet reacted to the report about Qutaiba’s emotional breakdown and his subsequent arrest.
Until now, U.S. officials have said they could not confirm the new reports about the elimination of the Islamic State leader.
There have been earlier reports about the death of the ISIS leader which were later unmasked as false. In 2015, Iranian media even published a photo of the "dead” ISIS leader which later proved to be a photoshopped image.
However, Ali Shirazi, a spokesman for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, told Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency that the "terrorist Baghdadi is definitely dead.”
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2010 and later went on to become the Caliph of the self-declared ISIS- Caliphate.
"In October 2011, the U.S. officially designated Baghdadi as ‘terrorist’ and offered a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture or death,” according to the BBC.
