US claims ISIS chief kill
WASHINGTON: The elusive leader of the feared Islamic State jihadi network is believed to have been killed after detonating a suicide vest during a dramatic raid of his Syrian bolthole by US commandos.
A US official yesterday declared Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was finally dead following an explosion in the northwest Syrian province of Idlib after midnight Saturday.
If the reports are correct, the kill would prove the most significant terrorist scalp since the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The official, who only spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the mission to eliminate alBaghdadi involved helicopters, warplanes and a ground clash near the Turkish border.
It was carried out by special operations commandos after they were tipped off by “actionable intelligence”.
Security sources from within both Iraq and Iran have revealed they have been informed of al-Baghdadi’s death.
It comes as US President Donald Trump last night teased a major announcement, tweeting: “Something very big has just happened!”
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said the president would make a “major statement” at 9am Sunday, about midnight AEST.
The strike comes amid concerns a recent American pullback from northeastern Syria could infuse new strength into the militant group, which had lost vast stretches of territory it had once controlled.
Al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi, was long thought to be hiding somewhere along the Iraq-Syria border.
He had led IS for at least the last five years, presiding over its ascendancy as it cultivated a reputation for beheadings and attracted hundreds of thousands of followers to a sprawling and self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
He remained among the few IS commanders still at large despite multiple claims in recent years about his death and even as his so-called caliphate dramatically shrank, with many supporters who joined the cause either imprisoned or killed.
His exhortations were instrumental in inspiring terrorist attacks in the heart of Europe and the US.
Shifting away from the airline hijackings and other masscasualty attacks that came to define al-Qaeda, al-Baghdadi and other IS leaders supported smaller scale acts of violence that would be harder for law enforcement to prepare for and prevent.
They encouraged jihadists who could not travel to the caliphate to killy g where they were, with whatever weapon they had at their disposal.
All over the world, multiple extremists have pledged their allegiance to al-Baghdadi on social media and carried out terror acts in his name.
But with a $US25 million bounty on his head, he had been far less visible in recent years, releasing only sporadic audio recordings. In a recording released last month, he implored members of the extremist group to do all they could to free IS detainees and women held in jails and camps.
In 2014, he made his only known appearance at Mosul’s Great Mosque of al-Nuri.