Jerusalem Post Middle East
ISIS LEADER AL-BAGHDADI KILLED IN U.S. SPECIAL OPS RAID
The elusive Islamic State leader has led the group since 2010, when it was still an underground al Qaeda offshoot in Iraq.
BY REUTERS, JERUSALEM POST STAFF OCTOBER 27, 2019 14:33
The United States military conducted an operation against elusive Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on... Saturday..., a US official said, as ...President Donald Trump... prepared to make a "major statement" at the White House on Sunday morning.
After previous reports remained vague, a senior Pentagon official and an Army official both confirmed to Newsweek that the operation was successful, and that the man killed was indeed Baghdadi. Official confirmation is currently pending... DNA testing...
According to Newsweek's report, following a brief ...firefight... while US forces were advancing to ...Baghdadi's... compound, he committed ...suicide... by... activating an explosive... vest. Two of his wives were killed as well when they ...detonated their explosive vests...
The operation was carried out by...... US Joint Special Operations Command's Delta Team..., according to the report.
...Iran... was informed by sources in... Syria... that al-Baghdadi had been killed..., two ...Iranian ...officials told Reuters on Sunday.
"Iran was informed about Baghdadi's death by Syrian officials, who got it from the field," one of the officials said. The second Iranian official confirmed it.
The... Syrian ...Observatory for Human Rights ...confirmed that... nine people died... in the US offensive on Baghdadi's compound, while... Iraq... was informed by sources in... Syria... that Islamic State leader... Abu Bakr al-Baghdad...i has been killed, two Iraqi security sources told Reuters on Sunday.
Our sources from... inside Syria... have confirmed to the ...Iraqi intelligence... team tasked with pursuing Baghdadi that he has been killed ...alongside... his personal bodyguard... in ...Idlib..., after his... hiding place... was discovered when he tried to get... his family out of Idlib... towards the ...Turkish border,..." said one of the sources.
Iraqi state TV claimed on Sunday that... Iraqi... intelligence had assisted in pointing out the exact location of al-Baghdadi.
...White House... spokesman... Hogan Gidley ...announced late on Saturday that... Trump... would make a "major statement" at 9 a.m. EST (1300 GMT) on Sunday. He gave no further details as to the topic of Trump's statement.
The president gave an indication that something was afoot earlier on Saturday night when he tweeted without explanation,... "Something very big has just happened!"...
Trump has been frustrated by the US news media's heavy focus on the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry, which he calls an illegitimate witch hunt.
He has also faced withering criticism from both Republicans and Democrats alike for his US troop withdrawal from northeastern Syria, which permitted Turkey to attack America's Kurdish allies.
Many critics of Trump's Syria pullout have expressed worries that it would... lead the Islamic State ...militancy to ...regain strength... and pose a... threat to US interests.... An announcement about Baghdadi's death could help... blunt... those concerns.
Trump was expected to make the statement in the... White House Diplomatic Reception Room..., which he has used to make a number of... major announcements.....
Just last week, he used the same room to announce that a... ceasefire... between... Turkey and the Kurds... had taken hold.
For days, US officials had feared that Islamic State would seek to capitalize on the upheaval in Syria. But they also saw a potential opportunity, in which Islamic State leaders might... break... from more secretive routines to communicate with operatives, potentially creating a chance for the United States and its allies to... detect... them.
Baghdadi was long... thought... to be hiding somewhere along the... Iraq-Syria... border. He has led the group since... 2010..., when it was still an ...underground al-Qaeda offshoot in Iraq...
On... September 16..., Islamic State's media network issued a... 30-minute... audio message purporting to come from Baghdadi, in which he said... operations... were taking place daily and called on supporters to... free women... jailed.... in camps in... Iraq.. and... Syria ...over their alleged links to his group.
In the audio message, Baghdadi also said that the... United States ...and its ...proxies ...had been ...defeated... in... Iraq and Afghanistan..., and that it had been ..."dragged"... into... Mali... and... Niger...
At the height of its... power..., Islamic State... ruled over ...millions of people..., in territory running from... northern Syria... through towns and villages along the... Tigris and Euphrates... valleys to the outskirts of the... Iraqi capital Baghdad...
But the fall in... 2017 ...of... Mosul... and... Raqqa..., its strongholds in... Iraq... and... Syria... respectively,... stripped... Baghdadi..., an... Iraqi..., of the trappings of a caliph and... turned... him into a ....fugitive... thought to be moving along the ...desert border between Iraq and Syria...
...US... air strikes... killed... most of his... top lieutenants..., and before Islamic State published a video message of Baghdadi in April, there had been conflicting reports over whether he was alive.
Despite losing its last significant territory, Islamic State is believed to have... sleeper cells... around the world..., and some fighters operate from the... shadows in Syria's desert... and... Iraq's cities...