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.

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

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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.

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Now, Baghdadi himself has fled Mosul: Britain