There has been a surge in reports on the alleged death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in recent weeks. About a month ago, the Russians claimed they had successfully killed him in an airstrike targeting the terrorist organization's leaders' meeting in Raqqa, the eastern Syrian capital of the Islamic State caliphate. And again, last Tuesday, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Baghdadi had been killed, along with other central leaders in the group, in an American airstrike near Deir ez-Zor, also in Syria. None of these reports have been verified. Under the shroud of secrecy that surrounds Baghdadi, it is possible that, like previous reports, these are all baseless rumors. That being said, Baghdadi is certainly living on borrowed time. In recent months, the U.S. and its allies in the region recorded a series of impressive accomplishments by killing a number of important Islamic State leaders. These include some of Baghdadi's top aides, responsible for the group's finances, public relations, coordinating terrorist attacks abroad and overseeing petroleum production. Even one of group's muftis, or senior Muslim clergymen, was recently killed as well. Baghdadi is doomed to be either caught or killed, just like former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein before him. Baghdadi has become a symbol for the Americans, and not only for them. He made too many enemies and they are all currently gunning for his head. Now that the idea of a Muslim caliphate has collapsed and many of his followers have scattered without hope or direction, some of his supporters may be tempted to betray him. The decisive factors, therefore, will be patience and resources -- two things that the Americans have in abundance. Regardless of his personal fate, the caliphate he founded in Iraq and Syria is about to fall. His uncompromising radicalism and brutality helped him deter many of his enemies in the beginning. He successfully recruited those fooled by the blood and fire with which Islamic State paved its way forward. But this radicalism made too many enemies, and ultimately, they will overpower Islamic State. It seems a joint (even though no one will admit it) American and Iranian operation in Iraq, along with an American and Kurdish operation in Syria, supported by Russia, enabled the Iraqi army and the Kurds in Syria to cut Islamic State off from all sides. The city of Mosul was conquered at the beginning of last week, where Baghdadi declared the establishment of a caliphate under his leadership three years ago. The Great Mosque of al-Nuri in the heart of the city, which more than anything represented Baghdadi's rise to power, is now a pile of rubble. Meanwhile, Kurdish fighters in Syria approach the Islamic State capital of Raqqa with American assistance. Islamic State's time as a state is ending. But the idea of Islamic State, which conquered the hearts of many in the Middle East and around the world, will be around for a long time, as will the guerilla organization active in the Sinai Peninsula, the depths of Libya, in the southern Syrian Golan Heights and of course deep in the desert of Syria and Iraq. In fact, just as Islamic State replaced al-Qaida, which was weakened by the targeted killing of its charismatic leader Osama bin Laden, it can also be replaced with a no less radical organization that will build on the ruins of its predecessor and try to surpass its sophistication and perhaps its brutality as well. The battle may be over, but the war rages on.
