How tip-off led to terror chief
The eight American stealth helicopters, carrying Delta Force and Navy Seals, came in fast and low over the olive trees in Barisha, a village of a few thousand people in Idlib province near the Turkish border.
In the darkness around midnight they were fired on from the ground but quickly obliterated the source, before the special forces troops rappelled to the ground near the compound housing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the world’s most wanted terrorist.
Watching in the situation room at the White House, Donald Trump was flanked by Mike Pence, the vice president; Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff; Robert O’Brien, the national security adviser; military generals and CIA officials. Trump said it was ‘‘as though watching a movie’’.
The CIA had been tracking Baghdadi for several weeks after receiving information about his whereabouts from sources in Iraq.
A senior Iraqi official told The Daily Telegraph that they had obtained details about Baghdadi’s location from members of his inner circle, who were arrested in Iraq in September.
The official said: ‘‘We arrested one of Baghdadi’s wives, his nephew, and the wife of one of Baghdadi’s couriers.’’
The Telegraph understands that the courier’s wife led operatives to a location in the desert of Al-Qaim, on the Iraqi side of the Syria-Iraq border, where Baghdadi was thought to have been hiding out after the fall of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s self-styled caliphate.
At the site they found two barrels full of personal items, including medicine, and documents containing the coordinates of the terrorist leader’s location in Idlib.
As the US began tracking him, there were several false starts, as Baghdadi headed for locations in or near Barisha, only to change his mind at the last minute. Finally convinced he was in the compound, Trump gave the order for the raid.
Sources indicated that the
mission had to be rushed after the US feared it would lose leverage in Syria after pulling out of its forces last week. It also involved ‘‘deconflicting’’ with all the other main global players in the wartorn country.
To get to Barisha the US helicopters had to fly for an hour and 10 minutes through dangerous areas of northern Syria controlled by Russia and Turkey.
Both nations were informed in
advance that the US would be operating, but were not told why. For the commanders, the flight was considered perhaps the riskiest part of the mission.
After landing successfully, Seals set up a perimeter and Delta Force approached the compound wall.
The intelligence had been so detailed that the troops knew the main gate was booby trapped. Instead, they blew holes in several
locations along the wall before going in. They also attacked a car outside the compound, which, it is believed, may have been intended for an escape attempt.
According to Trump’s account, there was a last stand by some of Baghdadi’s closest cadre inside the compound. Some of them were ‘‘cold-blooded killers’’, others were like ‘‘frightened puppies’’, the president said. Half a dozen terrorists were killed, with no dead or injured among the American soldiers.
As they cleared the compound, the US forces found two of Baghdadi’s wives, wearing suicide vests, dead.
They had not detonated and it was not clear if they were killed in a fire fight or had taken their own lives.
The US forces removed 11 children to safety away from the compound.
The intelligence had also identified a series of tunnels under the compound.
One of those tunnels was believed to be an open-ended escape route to the outside, and a unit of US forces were stationed there to prevent Baghdadi getting away. He instead fled down one of the dead-end tunnels, taking three children with him.
US military dogs led the chase, followed by soldiers, down the tunnel.
Cornered, Baghdadi detonated the suicide vest he was wearing, killing himself and the three children. Trump said: ‘‘He was whimpering and crying and screaming all the way. He died like a dog. He died like a coward.’’
It was the ‘‘judgment of God’’, the president added.
The explosion caused the tunnel roof to collapse on top of Baghdadi and the children. One of the dogs was injured, but the soldiers were not hurt. Baghdadi’s body parts were quickly uncovered from the debris and removed from the tunnel. A DNA test was carried out on site 15 minutes later and the result was positive.
Meanwhile, US teams combed the compound and found records relating to both the origins and future of Isis. The raid was swift, with US forces in the compound for about two hours. After the helicopters took off, the compound was hit by an airstrike to prevent it from becoming a shrine.
Baghdadi’s presence in Idlib, the last remaining anti-Assad stronghold, came as a surprise to some, as the province is controlled by groups hostile to Isis.
Abu Ahmad, 55, who lives next to the compound, said he had repeatedly tried and failed to befriend his discreet neighbour, who he believed was a merchant from the province of Aleppo.
He was woken by the sound of soldiers calling for his neighbour to give himself up. Ahmed Mohammad, who lives nearby, said he was the internet provider for the owner of the compound and ‘‘did not have the impression that he was anything but a civilian’’.
Barry McCaffrey, a retired US Army general, said: ‘‘It was flawless. The fact we had no casualties is astonishing.’’
Yesterday, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reported the killing of Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, Isis’s spokesman, near Jarablus, in northern Syria, in a joint operation with the US.
– Telegraph Group