Russia had claimed it killed the elusive leader, who has not been seen in public since declaring Isil’s so-called caliphate from the Iraqi city of Mosul in July 2014, in an air strike on a meeting of senior Isil commanders near Raqqa on May 28.
The UK-based monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) last week said they had “unconfirmed information” Baghdadi had been killed in Syria.
However, Western and Iraqi officials could not confirm either of the claims.
"Our approach is we assume he's alive until it's proven otherwise, and right now I can't prove it otherwise," Jim Mattis, US defence Secretary, said last week. "We'll go after him until he's gone.”
Abu Ali Basri, the director general of the Iraq’s intelligence and counter-terrorism office in the ministry of interior, agreed Baghdadi was still alive and in Syria.
