Bagging Baghdadi
1st pix of attack on ISIS boss
The Pentagon on Wednesday released dramatic footage from the Saturday night raid that took out ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and recounted in detail how US forces carried out the attack.
“The operation was exquisitely planned and executed,” said Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, at a Wednesday press briefing.
One video, shot from a military aircraft above Baghdadi’s remote hideaway in Syria, shows a number of US ground troops approaching the compound where the ISIS leader eventually blew himself up in a tunnel.
“This is a video of the assault force actually closing up to the compound,” McKenzie said.
The troops were met by many civilians, including 11 children, exiting the compound. The civilians were “treated humanely” and eventually released from custody.
Once inside the hideout — which was roughly four miles from the Turkey border — the troops encountered and killed five ISIS fighters.
“They did not respond to commands in Arabic to surrender — and they continued to threaten the force,” McKenzie said of the four women and a man. Two men also were detained.
As the ops closed in on al-Baghdadi, he blew himself up with a suicide vest, killing two young children by his side.
The soldiers “secured whatever documentation and electronics we could find, which was substantial,” said McKenzie. The compound was then obliterated with several precision munitions.