ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi Dead After U.S. Raid in Syria, Officials Confirm

Targeted by US special forces, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is said to have blown himself up as troops tried to enter the compound where he had taken refuge in northern Syria, reports 2m.

According to the same security source, his two wives, his bodyguards and his three children also died in the explosion.

Wearing a turban and black clothes, his graying beard, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had then called on all Muslims to pledge allegiance to him after being appointed head of the caliphate proclaimed by his group over the vast territories conquered in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Apart from his only known public appearance in July 2014 at the al-Nouri mosque in Mosul, the Daesh leader had not given any sign of life since an audio recording released in November 2016, the day after the Iraqi offensive to retake Mosul in which he urged his men to fight to the death.