Yuri Svitkin
The elimination of the leader of the extremist group is more effective tactics to defeat terrorism in Syria than the air strikes, said Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on defence Yury Shvydkin. His assessment he shared in an interview with “Tape.ru” on Thursday, June 22.
“This will cause serious damage to the enemy, in particular moral and psychological. In addition, the loss of a commander will provoke a power struggle within the group, resulting in a loss of control,” said the MP, commenting on the data the Russian foreign Ministry about the probable destruction of the leader of the “Islamic state” (IG; banned in Russia), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
That the leader of the militants likely killed by a blow to the Russian aerospace forces, June 16, reported the Ministry of defense.
In the media information about the terrorist’s death appeared repeatedly. The last time Syrian state television reported that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in an airstrike in Raqqa, June 10. In January, Western journalists suspected that the leader of the extremists seriously injured.
Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri, known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abu du’a and the Caliph Ibrahim, allegedly born in 1971 in Iraq. IG headed seven years ago after the death of its founder Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.