The ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has reportedly fled the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and abandoned his soldiers, “leaving them to die,” an Iraqi counter-terror official said.

General Maan al-Saadi said Baghdadi has fled to an unknown location and could be plotting further international attacks.

Saadi said that ISIS has been majorly pushed back in Mosul and that the extremists “no longer feel they have a place” in the city following the liberation of many neighbourhoods, Al Arabiya reported.

In March, Baghdadi issued a statement acknowledging the group’s defeat in Iraq, as he urged supporters to either hide or flee, Iraqi television network, Alsumaria, quoted local sources as saying.

According to the sources in the Iraqi governorate of Nineveh, Baghdadi’s statement was titled ‘farewell speech’ and was distributed among ISIS’ preachers and clerics