Russia cannot fully confirm ISIL’s Baghdadi has been killed: Lavrov

YemenExtra

M.A.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that he wasn’t able to give 100 per cent confirmation that ISIS’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been killed in an air raid, speaking in Moscow, Friday.

Commenting on images published by the Russian Ministry of Defence of Syria airstrike which may have killed IS-leader Al-Baghdadi, Lavrov said, “naturally I have heard about these reports.” He however said that he could not give full confirmation that he is now dead.

During the press conference, held alongside his Laos counterpart Saleumxay Kommasith, Lavrov mentioned that the Unites States is ‘doing everything to shield Jabhat al-Nusra.”

“Jabhat al-Nusra keeps being a big mystery,” Lavrov stressed, before continuing to say that “despite the fact that it has been designated as a branch of al-Qaeda… we don’t see any real fight against it.”

“The US-led coalition is behaving the same way it did under President [Barack] ABM’s administration – they are doing everything to shield Jabhat al-Nusra.”

The press conference occurred after a meeting between the Russian and Laotian top diplomats, where they discussed bilateral relations as well as further cooperation between Russia and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).