U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to confirm on Sunday that the reclusive leader of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed in an operation by American forces in Syria.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, earlier told Reuters Baghdadi was targeted in the overnight raid but was unable to say whether the operation was successful.
A commander of one of the militant factions in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib said Baghdadi was believed to have been killed in a raid after midnight on Saturday involving helicopters, warplanes and a ground clash in the village of Brisha near the Turkish border.
Two Iraqi security sources and two Iranian officials said they had received confirmation from inside Syria that Baghdadi had been killed. Reuters also reported that the assault had taken place in Idlib, northern Syria, as the militant leader had been trying to flee the country with his family.
A reclusive leader
It is not the first time that Baghdadi, who rose from obscurity to become the leader of Islamic State – then called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – has been reported killed five years since he declared the foundation of a ‘Caliphate’ in Iraq and Syria from the pulpit of Mosul’s Grand Mosque.
In April 2019, the reclusive leader served to quash rumours of his death in a video that showed him sitting on a cushion with an assault rifle, and calling for the continuation of jihad. It came after ISIS had been all but defeated in Syria and Iraq in a U.S. backed campaign.
His death overnight on Saturday was first reported by Newsweek cited a U.S. official saying that the White House had high confidence that the person killed was Baghdadi and that DNA and biometric testing was now underway to be sure.
EuroNews
