Islamic State Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is still alive and is likely to be hiding in the Euphrates Valley, said Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend who commands coalition forces against the jihadist group in Iraq and Syria.

"We're looking for him every day, I do not think he's dead," he said. General Townsend admitted that he had no "no idea" of the exact location where Baghdadi might be, but believes he may have escaped with other jihadists in the Euphrates valley, a region extending roughly from the city of Dear i Zur in Eastern Syria to the city of Rawa in western Iraq - after the coalition offensive against against Mosul, Raqqa and Tal Afar.

"When we find him, I think we will try to kill him first, and there is no point in trying to catch him," he said. The Syrian Human Rights Watch said in early July that Baghdad may have been dead, referring to the leaders of the group in the province of Deir i Zur. The Russian army announced on June 22 that it was very likely to have killed Baghdad, but failed to confirm this claim.

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