IS chief Baghdadi surrounded by Iraqi Army inside Mosul

The battle for Mosul, where the self-declared caliph of IS is believed to be hiding, is likely to end in a decisive defeat for the terrorist group, the Inde pendent reported. Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, told the daily that his government had information from multiple sources that “Baghdadi is there and, if he is killed, it will mean the collapse of the whole [IS] system.” 

Baghdadi has kept himself concealed for the last eight or nine months according to Hussein, who added that the caliph had become very dependent on IS commanders from Mosul and Tal Afar, a city just to the west of Mosul. Other senior and better known figures in IS, particularly those from Syria and other countries, have been killed since their initial triumphs in the summer of 2014 when they took over much of northern Iraq and eastern Syria. 

The presence of Baghdadi in Mosul may complicate and prolong the battle for Mosul as his surviving adherents fight to the death to defend him. If he is killed, IS would have to choose a new caliph in the middle of a battle, but no successor would have the authority and prestige of Baghdadi, the leader who surprised the world by establishing the caliphate after capturing Mosul in June 2014. On Tuesday, Iraqi Special Forces advanced into Mosul, which once had a population of two million, seizing the state television on the east bank of the Tigris River that divides the city in half.