Baghdadi hiding in Hajin town in Syria: Iraqi security official

Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been reported to be hiding somewhere in the Syrian city of Hajin 18 miles off the Syrian-Iraqi borders.

"The last information we have is he is in Al-Hajin in Syria, 18 miles from the border in Deir ez-Zor province,” Fox News quoted Abu Ali al-Basri, director-general of the intelligence and counter-terrorism office at the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, as saying.

The fresh information about Baghdadi's whereabouts has come as recently as the last couple of days, and is being used conduct a“multi-force raid” with Russian, Syrian and Iranian troops, al-Basri added.

Russian officials last May claimed Baghdadi had been killed in one of their strikes outside of Raqqa, Syria. But such claims were never proven. Reports since have surfaced that he may have been badly wounded in the Russian attack, but survived.

Baghdadi - whose real name is Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Basri - first spoke to the public in July 2014 at the Great Mosque of al-Nuri where he announced the establishment of the so-called "Islamic Caliphate" in the Levant. Ever since, news media has frequently claimed that he was dead, without confirmation.