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On Saturday night, there were several news media reports that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been killed by U.S. Special Forces in Northern Syria. Baghdadi was “dead pending verification,” the Pentagon source told Newsweek. President Donald Trump approved the mission nearly a week before the top-secret operation took place.
Newsweek provided details of the raid on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS:
Members of a team from the Joint Special Operations Command carried out Saturday’s high-level operation after receiving actionable intelligence, according to sources familiar with the operation. The location raided by special operations troops had been under surveillance for some time.
Getty Image / Anadolu Agency / Contributor
Rumors are circulating that there was a raid in Idlib, a city in northwestern Syria, where US Special Forces and coalition forces were pursuing a high-value terrorist target. That may have been al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Charles Lister, senior fellow and director of MEI Countering Terrorism & Extremism Program, tweeted out potential details of the raid on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“There are reports of a (US?) helicopter-borne raid on a convoy of Huras al-Din (#AlQaeda in #Syria) leaders traveling near Barisha in #Idlib.
Locals say as many as 6 choppers involved – gave chase to convoy, 2 landed & assaulted vehicles. Possibly took bodies or evidence away.
Barisha is ~3-4km from the #Turkey border. It’s in long-time #AlQaeda territory, spanning between Al-Dana-Sarmada-Salqin.
As I recall, a helicopter-borne raid on AQ in NW #Syria has never happened – this would suggest a very high-level target.
In more recent years, the Turkistan Islamic Party (#TIP) has probably been the most significant authority in the Barisha region (stretching NE to Jisr al-Shughour).
Unverified reports have claimed 1 #TIP fatality, in what looks like a series of successive clashes. #Idlib”
Getty Image / Anadolu Agency / Contributor
A Kuwaiti news agency Annahar tweeted: “United States: Raid targeted ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and led to his death.”
Al-Baghdadi was the leader of Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) and al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) since 2010. Al-Baghdadi was the leader of ISIL since its founding in 2013.
The U.S. State Department has had a bounty on al-Baghdadi’s head since 2016, and would pay $25 million for information that led to the ISIS leader’s capture or death.
President Trump couldn’t help but to tease the breaking news with a tweet that read: “Something very big has just happened!”
The White House announced: “President of the United States will be making a major statement tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock from the White House.”
This is breaking news and we will update the article when new information becomes available.