ISIS Preacher Gets Executed for Suggesting Death of Their Leader
An ISIS preacher and leader, Abu Qutaiba, has allegedly been executed by the militants after he coincidentally suggested that the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had died.
It came to light when a local source told Alsumaria News, as cited by Iraqi News, that Qutaiba was burned to death in the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, Iraq. It comes shortly after he was arrested for stirring sedition in a prayer sermon where he started crying and suggested Baghdadi's possible death. The source said, "He mumbled a few words afterward that suggested Baghdadi's death."
The source went ahead to reveal that ISIS had previously ordered a punishment of 50 lashes for any individual who mentioned Baghdadi's survival or otherwise. The move came to avert a possible escalation of simmering leadership conflicts within the group.
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In June, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces might have killed Baghdadi in an air strike in Syria. Russia's Su-35 multirole fighter and Su-34 aircraft carried out airstrikes near the group's stronghold in Raqqa, Syria on May 28.
The strikes targeted a meeting of high-ranking ISIS chiefs where Baghdadi was reportedly present. The air raid on the southern outskirts of the city reportedly killed around 30 mid-level militant leaders and about 300 other fighters.
"According to information that is being checked through various channels, IS leader Ibrahim Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed as a result of the strike, was also present at the meeting," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement obtained by The Telegraph.
However, the claims have been met with skepticism. Director of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman, believed Baghdadi was not in the area at the time of the alleged raid. He also said that there is no way to confirm the Russian claim.
