By Hollie McKay, Fox News
MOSUL, Iraq – ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – still the world’s most wanted man, with a $25 million bounty on his head – is believed to be very much at large, quite possibly in a desert area of Syria.
That’s the assessment of multiple officials who say Baghdadi – whose real name is Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Basri – is likely sheltering in a remaining ISIS bastion in the Euphrates River Valley, a barren terrain with vast open plains, on the Syrian side of the porous border with Iraq.
“The last information we have is he is in Al-Hajin in Syria, 18 miles from the border in Deir ez-Zor province,” Abu Ali al-Basri, director-general of the intelligence and counter-terrorism office at the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, told Fox News on Sunday. Al-Basri said fresh information about Baghdadi’s whereabouts has come as recently as the last couple of days, and is being used conduct a“multi-force raid” with Russian, Syrian and Iranian troops.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, spokesperson for the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and for the Joint Operations Command, affirmed Baghdadi likely survives on the border east of the Euphrates River – with Syria’s Al Shadaddi in the al-Hasakh province another possible location. “It is not difficult for him to hide in the Syrian desert,” Rasool said.
That’s also the view of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who believe Baghdadi is in one of the “tens of villages” along Iraqi-Syrian border, according to SDF spokesperson, Mustafa Bali.
While ISIS has been largely defeated across Syria and Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition this past week continued to carry out some 27 air strikes against remaining targets near Abu Kamal, Deir ez-Zor and Al Shadaddi on the Syrian side, as well as near Mosul, Ar Rutbah and Al Huwayjah on the Iraq side.
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