File photo of Al-Baghdadi giving a speech at Al-Nuri mosque in Mosul.

:: There is a high degree that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed by an airstrike carried out by the Russian Air Force in Syria in late May, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

“It is highly likely that ISIS leader [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi was eliminated in an airstrike of the Russian Air Force on a militant command post in a southern suburb of the city of Raqqa in late May,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told Sputnik News, citing data provided by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Baghdadi’s death is now being verified through “various channels,” Syromolotov said.

However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he could not give a solid proof that Baghdadi was eliminated.

The Russian Defense Minister said on June 16 that the ISIS leader might have been killed during an ISIS military council meeting by a Russian airstrike on May 28 south of the militant group’s stronghold of Raqqa in Syria.

Meanwhle, the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Thursday that the “liberation” of the city of Mosul from ISIS will be announced in a few days.

“It’s a matter of a few days and we will announce the total liberation of Mosul,” Abadi told reporters in Baghdad, according to al-Sumaria.