The report of al-Baghdadi's death comes as the Islamic State suffers major setbacks in which it has lost wide swaths of territory.
As the militants take a pounding in their eroding strongholds, USA officials and Syrian activists say many commanders have fled Mosul and Raqqa in recent months for Mayadeen, a remote town in the heart of Syria's IS-controlled Euphrates River valley near the Iraqi border.
The revelation has emerged as Iraqi forces claimed al-Baghdadi's deputy, Ayad al-Jumaili, was killed in an air strike near Iraq's border with Syria.
The ministry said Friday that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a Russian strike in late May along with other senior group commanders.
The Russian defense ministry said on Saturday it killed around 180 militants and the two commanders al-Beljiki and al-Masri in air strikes close to Deir al-Zor on June 6 and June 8.
The Russian army said earlier that it hit IS leaders in an airstrike in Syria last month and was seeking to verify whether IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been killed.
This is the first time, however, that Russian Federation has said it may have killed the IS leader.
It added that Washington was informed in advance about the place and time of the strike near the jihadists' Syria stronghold, which is now under assault by US-backed fighters.
However, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said that as of now, there is no certainty if the terrorist group leader is still alive, as reported by The Guardian.
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IS normally does not rush to confirm the death of leadership figures, and would belatedly and sometimes indirectly announce them in general messages or by naming military campaigns after the deceased leader.
He said the claims should be taken "with a heavy grain of salt", adding that "there's no logical reason imaginable" why al-Baghdadi would have risked staying in a surrounded, sitting target with USA -led forces only days away from launching their final assault on Raqqa.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which is a nom de guerre, was born Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al Samarrai. The U.S. has a $25 million bounty for information leading to his death or capture. At the time, he was considered a low-level al Qaeda member.
"Baghdadi is present in Iraq and not in Syria", he told Asharq Al-Awsat, saying ISIS is now run by a 12-member leadership council that practically leads the terrorist organization.
The leaders were discussing their exit from the city through the so-called southern corridor, the ministry said.
The ministry said that around 180 fighters were killed, and that 16 military vehicles were destroyed along with weapons stores.
The Defense Ministry added that it had warned the USA of the coming strike.
Director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdel-Rahman told Asharq Al-Awsat that at the time of the Russian airstrike, all first-rank ISIS officials had already fled Raqqa.
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