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Syrian leads Islamic State dissent in Mosul amid Baghdadi’s death rumors

 Syrian leads Islamic State dissent in Mosul amid Baghdadi’s death rumors

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) A Syrian militant within the Islamic State in Mosul is leading a dissent against the group’s supreme leader amid rumors about his death, local sources said.

The so-nicknamed Abu Abdullah al-Shami, a Syrian national, is calling upon combatant comrades to cease to pledge allegiance to Baghdadi since his survival was not certain, a local source was quoted by Shafaaq news website as saying.

The source quoted al-Shami as citing the group’s code of leadership, which revokes allegiance to a leader once his whereabouts or competence is questioned.

Baghdadi emerged in 2014 to proclaim an “Islamic Caliphate” over Iraqi and Syrian territories. The group had declared the city of Mosul as its capital in Iraq, but a wide-scale campaign by Iraqi government forces, backed by U.S.-led troops and popular militias, has, since October, defeated Islamic State out of the city’s eastern region. The group is still in control over the western region, but Iraqi and international coalition generals are voicing optimism as the group has reportedly suffered personnel, ground and finance losses besides divisions among its ranks.

Baghdadi’s whereabouts are still unknown, but he is widely believed to be hiding at a group’s stronghold in western Mosul near the borders with Syria.

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