‘DIED LIKE A DOG’

Trump hails operation after IS chief ends his life

CORNERED by elite US forces in a dead-end underground tunnel, the depraved Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took the coward’s way out.

The fanatic responsible for thousands of murders and the spread of a self-declared “caliphate” that directed terror attacks across the world, using rape, torture and televised executions to capture swathes of Syria and Iraq, detonated a suicide vest, murdering three of his own children. “He was a sick and depraved man, and now he’s gone,” US President Donald Trump said yesterday in a televised national address.

“He died like a dog. He died like a coward.”

The successful raid on Saturday night of Baghdadi’s compound in Syria’s Idlib province delivered a decisive foreign policy victory to Mr Trump and received rare praise yesterday from across the political spectrum.

Reaction from the families of prominent IS victims, including American volunteer Kayla Mueller, who was raped and murdered by Baghdadi, and journalist James Foley, whose beheading was televised, ranged from relief to sadness that they may never know exactly what happened to their loved ones following his death.

“I still want to know, ‘Where is Kayla?’ and what truly happened to her,” Kayla’s mother Marsha Mueller said yesterday.

“Someone knows, and I’m praying with all my heart that someone in this world will bring us those answers.”

Mr Trump detailed the offensive in a 45-minute press conference in which he said no US troops were killed.

“Last night, the United States brought the world’s No.1 terrorist leader to justice,” Mr Trump said.

The mission was spearheaded by eight US helicopters that flew from Iraq to the home where Baghdadi, 48, was hiding.

Mr Trump said the doors were booby-trapped with explosives so US forces breached the walls of the compound, chasing Baghdadi into the tunnel where he died.

“A large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him,” Mr Trump said.