Syrian Kurds took DNA sample from underwear of IS supremo
BEIRUT/WASHINGTON: A Syrian Kurd undercover agent took a pair of Abu Bakr al-baghdadi’s underwear for DNA identification ahead of the US raid that killed the jihadist leader, a Kurdish official said on Monday.
Polat Can, a senior adviser to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), published details of the intelligence work that led to the US raid in which the founder of the Islamic State group was killed.
“Our own source, who had been able to reach al-baghdadi, brought al-baghdadi’s underwear to conduct a DNA test and make sure (100%) that the person in question was al-baghdadi himself,” the adviser wrote on Twitter.
He said the US raid that killed Baghdadi in the northwestern province of Idlib was largely the result of SDF intelligence work, although Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds launched October 9 had delayed the operation.
US President Donald Trump, who announced the death of the world’s most wanted man on Sunday, thanked Syrian Kurdish forces “for a certain support they were able to give us”, but did not elaborate.
The US has given the remains of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-baghdadi a burial at sea and afforded him religious rites according to Islamic custom after he was killed in a US commando raid in Syria on Saturday.
TRUMP TWEETS PHOTO OF MILITARY DOG
The name is still classified but President Donald Trump on Monday outed the military working dog that tracked down the head of the Islamic State.
Trump tweeted a photo of a Belgian Malinois that he said worked with a team of special forces in the capture of Abu Bakr al-baghdadi in a tunnel beneath a compound in northeastern Syria.the name and other details about the dog remain a secret.
“We have declassified a picture of the wonderful dog (name not declassified) that did such a GREAT JOB in capturing and killing the Leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-baghdadi!” the president tweeted.