US forces kill ISIS leader in daring raid
WASHINGTON — Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the shadowy leader of the Islamic State group who presided over its global jihad and became arguably the world’s most wanted man, died after U.S. special operators cornered him during a raid in Syria, President Donald Trump said Sunday.
“Last night, the United States brought the world’s No. 1 terrorist leader to justice,” Trump announced at the White House, providing graphic details of al-Baghdadi’s final moments at the helm of the militant organization. “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead.”
In a national address, Trump described the nighttime airborne raid in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, with American special operations forces flying over heavily militarized territory controlled by multiple nations and forces. No U.S. troops were killed in the operation, Trump said.
The death of al-Baghdadi was a milestone in the fight against IS, which brutalized swaths of Syria and Iraq and sought to direct a global campaign from a self-declared “caliphate.” A yearslong campaign by American and allied forces led to the recapture of the group’s territorial holding, but its violent ideology has continued to inspire attacks.
As U.S. troops bore down on al-Baghdadi, he fled into a “dead-end” tunnel with three of his children, Trump said, and detonated a suicide vest, killing himself and the children. “He was a sick and depraved man, and now he’s gone,” Trump said. “He died like a dog, he died like a coward.”
Al-Baghdadi’s identity was confirmed by a DNA test conducted onsite, Trump said.
Trump had teased a major announcement late Saturday, tweeting that “Something very big has just happened!” By the morning, he was thanking Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iraq, as well as .urdish fighters in Syria for their support.
The operation marks a significant foreign policy
success for Trump.
lanning for the operation began weeks ago, Trump said, after the U.S. gained unspecified intelligence on al-Baghdadi’s whereabouts. (ight military helicopters flew for more than an hour over territory controlled by 5ussian and Syrian forces, Trump said, before landing under gunfire at the compound.
Trump vividly described
the raid and took extensive questions from reporters for more than 5 minutes Sunday. He said U.S. forces breached the walls of the building because the doors were booby-trapped and chased al-Baghdadi into the tunnel, which partially collapsed after al-Baghdadi detonated the suicide vest. Many homes in Syria, which has been riven by civil war since 2 , have subterranean tunnels or shelters from the fighting.
Trump also revealed that U.S. forces spent roughly two hours on the ground collecting valuable intelligence. The Syrian 2bservatory for Human 5ights said Sunday that the U.S.-led Coalition launched at least one airstrike in western Aleppo aimed at Abu Hassan al-Muhajer, an aide to al-Baghdadi.
Trump said he watched the operation from the :hite House Situation room as it played out live as though
you were watching a movie.” Trump suggested he may order the release of the video so that the world knows al-Baghdadi did not die of a hero and spent his final moments crying, whimpering” and screaming.”
Trump approved the operation Saturday morning after receiving actionable intelligence,” 9ice resident Mike ence told CBS’ Face the 1ation.”
Trump had spent Friday night at Camp David and flew by helicopter Saturday morning to golf at his private 9irginia club. He then returned to the :hite House.
Trump said he teased the announcement as soon as American forces landed safely in a third-country. An Iraqi security official confirmed the U.S. aircraft took off from the Al-Asad air base in western Iraq, where Trump visited American forces in December.
Defense Secretary Mark (sper said the mission was to capture or kill the IS leader. :hile Trump had initially said no Americans were injured, (sper said two service members suffered minor injuries but have already returned to duty. Sen. Lindsey raham, 5-S.C., said a military dog chasing al-Baghdadi was seriously wounded by an explosive blast.
raise for the military operation was swift, coming from American allies and even the president’s political opponents. In congratulating the U.S. forces and intelligence officials, but not Trump, former 9ice resident Joe Biden warned that IS remains a threat to the American people and our allies.”
Al-Baghdadi’s presence in the village a few kilometers from the Turkish border was surprising, even if some IS leaders are believed to have fled to Idlib after losing their
last sliver of territory in Syria to U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in March.
Iraqi officials said Sunday they passed information that helped ascertain al-Baghdadi’s whereabouts to the U.S. from the wife of an Iraqi aide to al-Baghdadi, as well as al-Baghdadi’s brother-inlaw, who was recently arrested by the Iraqis. The officials weren’t authori ed to publicly discuss intelligence operations and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Al-Baghdadi had led IS for the last five years, presiding over its ascendancy as it cultivated a reputation for beheadings and attracted tens 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 jailed.
His exhortations were instrumental in inspiring attacks in the heart of (urope and in the United States. Shifting away from the airline hijackings and other mass-casualty attacks that came to define al-Qaida, 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 kill where they were, with whatever weapon they had at their disposal. In the U.S., multiple extremists have pledged their allegiance to al-Baghdadi on social media, including a woman who along with her husband committed a 2 5 massacre at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California.