If Baghdadi isn’t dead, why doesn’t he just release a video or photograph proving that?

The million dollar question. Baghdadi has only made one public appearance in the last few years - when he declared the creation of the so-called caliphate from Mosul’s grand mosque in the summer of 2014.

He has been secretive both for security reasons and to add to the cult of personality which surrounds him. To release footage just to prove he’s still alive would not be in keeping with how he has operated to date.