IS leader Baghdadi almost certainly alive: Kurdish security official

This July 5, 2014 file video grab taken from a propaganda video by al-Furqan Media allegedly shows the leader of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, aka Caliph Ibrahim, adressing Muslim worshippers at a mosque in the militant-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The top Kurdish counter-terrorism official said on Monday he was 99 per cent sure that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was alive and located south of the Syrian city of Raqqa, after speculation that he had been killed.

 

Lahur Talabany also told Reuters that after defeat Islamic State would wage an insurgency and resemble al Qaeda on "steroids".

 

The future leaders of Islamic State were expected to be intelligence officers who served under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the men credited with devising the group's strategy.