U.S.-led coalition unsure if Islamic State's Baghdadi dead or alive

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.-led coalition battling Islamic State said on Friday it had no concrete evidence on whether the militant group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was dead or alive but played down any significance he might have on the battlefields of Iraq and Syria.

"We certainly know that if he is still alive, we expect that he is not being able to influence what is currently happening in Raqqa or Mosul or overall in the ISIS as they continue to lose their physical caliphate," coalition spokesman U.S. Army Colonel Ryan Dillon told a Pentagon briefing, using an acronym for the militant group.