RUSSIA claimed yesterday that it may have killed Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an air raid in Syria last month.

A Russian Defence Ministry statement said it had information suggesting Mr Baghdadi had attended a meeting with 30 Isis leaders near the death cult’s de-facto capital Raqqa which was hit by Russian jets on May 28.

“According to information, which is being verified via different channels, the meeting was also attended by Isis leader al-Baghdadi, who was eliminated in the strike,” the ministry said.

The statement also claimed that “high-ranking commanders of the terrorist group” were killed, along with some 30 “middle-ranking” commanders and 300 of their bodyguards.

However Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the claim remained unproven. “I don’t have 100 per cent confirmation of the information concerning the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” he told a press conference, adding that Isis and al-Qaida were still active.

The US-led military coalition fighting Isis in Iraq and Syria said it could not confirm the report.

Claims of Mr Baghdadi being killed by air strikes have been made frequently in the past three years since he made his first public appearance in 2014.

Isis has been rapidly losing ground in both Iraq and Syria with their former stronghold in the Iraqi city of Mosul now reduced to a single pocket in the Old City.

The UN claims fighters there are holding 10,000 civilians as hostages as the terrorists try to cling onto its remaining holds in the region.