ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi Almost Certainly Alive, Official: Turkey and Secret US bases in Syria

25 July 2017

News Agencies

A top Kurdish local goverment official said on Monday he was 99 percent sure that Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was alive and located south of the Syrian city of Raqqa, after reports that he had been killed.

"Baghdadi is definitely alive. He is not dead. We have information that he is alive. We believe 99 percent he is alive," Lahur Talabany told Reuters in an interview.

"Don't forget his roots go back to al-Qaeda days in Iraq. He was hiding from security services. He knows what he is doing."

Iraqi security forces have ended three years of IS rule in the Iraqi city of Mosul, and the group is under growing pressure in Raqqa - both strongholds in the militants' crumbling self-proclaimed caliphate.

Still, Talabany said Islamic State was shifting tactics despite low morale and it would take three or four years to eliminate the group.

After defeat, IS would wage an insurgency and resemble al-Qaeda on "steroids," he said.

The future leaders of IS were expected to be intelligence officers who served under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the men credited with devising the group's strategy.

Turkish officials say they didn’t reveal secret US bases in Syria

Turkish officials denied allegations that they had leaked the secret locations of ten U.S. bases in Syria to Turkey's state owned agency, saying Turkish journalists obtained the information from their own reporters on the ground.

Anadolu Agency, whose majority stakes are owned by the Turkish Treasury, published an in detail article on the U.S. bases in Syria, containing information on the numbers of U.S. troops, aircrafts, types of bases and the presence of a previously unknown number of French deployments. The U.S. forces are in the country to support internationally designated terror group the PKK's Syrian armed wing, People's Protection Units (YPG) against Daesh.

A story published by the Daily Beast claimed that Turkey leaked the information through its state news agency, which was met with deep concern by the Pentagon.

Three senior Turkish official strongly denied the allegations that they had given the information on U.S. bases to Turkish journalists. "After a review, our understanding is that Anadolu reporters prepared this story with their own resources," a senior Turkish official said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to government protocol.

A second Turkish official even went further and said that if Turkey wanted to send a message through leaks, it would have used international media organizations rather than its own state agency. "Leaking information to Anadolu Agency? That would be very stupid. People shouldn't insult our intelligence. We obviously wouldn't leave these kinds of fingerprints," the official said.

Media reports previously exposed two U.S. bases in the list, in Rmeilan in Hasakah province and one in Kobani near the Turkish border. The U.S.-led coalition brought some American reporters to cover senior military officials' visits and meetings to these bases. A senior YPG commander also listed the locations of the U.S. posts to Iraqi Kurdistan TV channel Rudaw in early July of about eight bases. In addition, Iran's Tasnim news agency last November also revealed two bases and two outposts, and a Syrian think tank published the location of two other bases in April.

A senior editor from the Anadolu Agency, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the agency compiled the information through its own reporters in Syria. "Our reporters prepared the story based on their sources in Syria, and also used some social media posts. We don't think it risked U.S. forces since all these bases are deep in territory controlled by the YPG," the editor said.

U.S. officials said this week that they conveyed their concerns to Turkish officials. A statement from the Pentagon said they couldn't independently verify the sources that contributed to the story, and stopped short of blaming Turkish officials for alleged leaking. 

©  EsinIslam.Com

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