Beirut: Hudhayfah Al Badri, son of Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, was killed during an attack by the extremists in the central Syrian province of Homs, the Daesh propaganda agency Amaq announced Tuesday.
Al Badri was killed in an “operation against the Nussayriyyah and the Russians at the thermal power station in Homs,” the group said in a statement alongside a photo of a young man holding an assault rifle.
Nussayriyyah is the term used by Daesh for the Alawite religious minority sect of President Bashar Al Assad.
Daesh declared a cross-border “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq in 2014, seizing a third of Iraq during a sweeping offensive.
The extremists have since lost much ground to separate counter-offensives by Syrian and Iraqi forces as well as US-led operations, and the extremist presence is now confined to a few holdouts.
Daesh is estimated to control no more than three per cent of Syria’s territory.
Last December the Iraqi government declared victory over Daesh but the military has continued regular operations targeting mostly desert areas along the porous Syrian border.
The group’s leader Al Baghdadi, who has been pronounced dead on several occasions, remains alive in Syrian territory by the Iraqi border, an Iraqi intelligence official said in May. Al Baghdadi was said to move around with only a small group of followers.
Originally from Iraq, Al Baghdadi has been dubbed the “most wanted man on the planet” and the United States is offering a $25 million reward for his capture.
The Iraqi official said the noose was closing around the extremist leader after Iraqi forces captured five top Daesh commanders in an unprecedented raid in Syria on March 24.
Last September, in the last voice message attributed to Al Baghdadi, the Daesh leader called on his fighters in Syria and Iraq to “resist” their enemies.
He had four children with his first wife and a son with his second wife.
