Youngest son of Islamic State leader killed in Russian airstrike: Report

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The youngest son of the leader of the Islamic State (IS) has been killed by a Russian aerial assault on a rural area in Syria, an Iraqi media outlet quoted an Iraqi commander as saying.

"We received conclusive information pointing to the death of the youngest son of IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an airstrike conducted by Russia on a terrorist hideout in a Syrian village two days ago," a Hashd al-Shaabi commander, Jabbar al-Ma'mouri, claimed when speaking with Baghdad Today on Sunday.

The Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) are comprised of multiple militias, many backed by Iran, that were incorporated into the Iraqi security apparatus to help fight IS after its emergence in 2014. After the jihadist group's military defeat in Iraq, some factions continue to fight them in Syria. 

In July, IS announced the death of another of the reclusive Baghdadi's sons.

“Hudayfah al-Badri ... the son of the Caliph ... was killed in an operation against the Nusayriyyah and the Russians at the thermal power station in Homs,” the statement read. The word "Nusayriyyah" refers to Syria’s Alawite community.

Over the past four years, the IS leader himself has frequently been reported killed or injured, namely in areas along the border of Iraq and Syria, but so far his death has not been confirmed.

On Sept. 19, Iraq's Karkh Criminal Court in Baghdad sentenced one of the most prominent leaders of IS to death by hanging, Baghdadi's deputy Ismail al-Aithawi.

Without being specific, Ma'mouri had explained the latest raid that resulted in the death of Baghdadi's youngest son, whose age has not been disclosed, came after intelligence was received pointing to his location soon after being separated from his father near the Syrian city of Homs in recent months.

The commander boasted, "Death is getting closer and closer to Baghdadi."

Editing by John J. Catherine