Islamic State Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s Son Reportedly Killed In Syria

Propaganda media outlets for Islamic State are reporting that the son of the group's leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, has been killed in Syria while fighting against Syrian government forces. The announcement of the death of the young son of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared on the group's social media accounts late on Tuesday.

It included a picture of a young boy carrying a rifle, identifying him as Hudhayfah al-Badri. The statement did not specify when he was killed. It said he was an elite fighter, known as "inghimasi," who was killed while fighting Syrian and Russian troops at a power station in central Homs province. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, said the most recent Islamic State operations in the area mentioned were in the first two weeks of June.

“Hudhayfah al-Badri... the son of the Caliph... was killed in an operation against the Nusayriyyah and the Russians at the thermal power station in Homs,” the statement said. The word “Nusayriyyah” refers to Syria’s Alawite community, of which the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, belongs.

An expert explains that “inghimasi” means basically kamikaze warriors, who are going and plunging themselves into the midst of the battle with the enemy and fighting until they are killed."

Al-Baghdadi has been reported killed or wounded on a number of occasions but is widely believed to still be alive. Little is known about al-Baghdadi's family, but a woman and a child who were said to be his wife and daughter were detained in Lebanon in 2014. Baghdadi’s last message came in the form of an undated 46-minute audio recording, released via the al-Furqan news organisation in September 2017, in which he urged his followers across the world to wage attacks against the West and to keep fighting in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

The Islamic State’s revelation of this news is widely being interpreted as using it for propaganda value and for boosting morale of its militants who have been driven out from most of their territories in Iraq and Syria.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 05, 2018 11:11 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).