ISIS finally admits its

leader Abu Bakr al 

Baghdadi is dead

ISIS has finally admitted its leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi is dead,
 according to media reports in Iraq

Ban lifted on jihadis talking about 
his death in an airstrike

• ISIS has reportedly confirmed Abu Bakr al Baghdadi was
•  killed in an air strike 
• Source told Iraqi media that ban on jihadis talking about 
• his death has been lifted
• It is not the first time reports have emerged claiming 
• that the 45-year-old is dead

ISIS has finally admitted its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead,
according to reports in Iraq.

The terror group is said to have confirmed that the 45-year-old
was killed in an air strike in the Iraqi province of Nineveh.

Reports claim ISIS fanatics are scrambling to find a successor
 to the terror chief, who announced the formation of the group's
 so-called caliphate in Mosul in 2014.

The claims were made by a source, speaking to Iraq's
Al Sumaria News, who said a ban on jihadis talking about
 the leader's death had now been lifted.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said
 today that it also had information from top ISIS group
leaders confirming the death.

'Top tier commanders from IS who are present in Deir Ezzor
province have confirmed the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
emir of the Islamic State group, to the Observatory,' director
Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

As at today but we do not know when he died or how.' 

The Pentagon said today that it had no information to
corroborate the claims. 

Russia's army said Sukhoi warplanes carried out a 10-minute
 raid on May 28 at a location near the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa,
where group leaders had gathered to plan a pullout from the area.

Reports of al-Baghdadi's death come as pictures show
airstrikes on ISIS positions on the edge of Mosul's Old City today

Iraqi troops

The US-led coalition fighting the jihadist group in Syria and Iraq 
said at the time it could not confirm whether the Russian strike 
had killed Baghdadi.

The 46-year-old Iraqi-born leader of ISIS has not been seen in public
since making his only known public appearance as 'caliph' in 2014
 at the Grand Mosque of Al-Nuri in Mosul.

ISIS destroyed the highly symbolic site before Iraqi forces could
reach it as they pushed the jihadist group from Mosul, where
Iraq's government formally declared victory on Monday.

With a $25-million US bounty on his head, Baghdadi has kept a
low profile and was rumoured to move regularly throughout ISIS-held
territory in the area straddling Iraq and Syria.

His death, if confirmed, would be a new blow to the group which is also battling a US-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters for control of its Syrian stronghold Raqqa.  

In January it was reported the leader had been 'critically
injured in airstrikes in northern Iraq.'

The Pentagon said in December it believed that the ISIS chief
was alive, despite repeated efforts by the US-led coalition to
 take out the jihadist group leader.

According to an official Iraqi government document, al-Baghdadi
was born in Samarra in Iraq in 1971.

He apparently joined the insurgency that erupted after the 2003
 US-led invasion of Iraq and spent time in an American military prison.   

Earlier this month, an ISIS preacher and leader was executed
 by the militants after he accidentally suggested that
al-Baghdadi had died.

Senior ISIS leader and preacher, Abu Qutaiba was burned
 to death in the group's stronghold town of Tal Afar,
Alsumaria News reported.